The novel begins in the 1984, with the disappearance of two twelve year olds, a young boy and a girl, and their friend Adam Ryan, found speechless, with blood in his shoes, unable to remember what happened to his friends. Some twenty years later, Adam is now Rob Ryan, a detective on the Dublin Murder squad. His partner is a young woman, Cassie Maddox, and they are both asked to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Katy Devlin, in Rob's old neighborhood, Knockaree, a housing development out side of Dublin. Cassie and Rob are given the case though no one, except Rob's partner, Cassie, know that he was the boy in the early disappearance of the the two twelve year olds. Thus begins the hunt for the murderer of Katy Devlin, a ballet prodigy. The Devlin's, the parents, also have two other daughters, Jessica, Katy's twin and Rosalind, her older sister. It's soon becomes clear that Rob is still haunted by the memories of what happened to him when he was twelve, that he should not have taken the case but he cannot help himself, hoping that some how, this search for the killer will also open some doors from his past and lead him to what actually happened on that day some twenty years ago.
Ryan and Cassie are perfect partners, friends forever, at least for the first half of the novel. They know each other habits, spend all day with each other, as detectives, often have dinner with each other, Ryan often sleeping on Cassie's couch if it's a late night. And it works, until it doesn't one night when they sleep with each other. It freaks Ryan out, he draws back, freezes Cassie out, and won't discuss the 'mistake,' which it is from his point of view. Cassie, we are not sure of. She acts as though it's no big deal, but we also think there's more to it then she lets out. This personal stuff is all going on as they try to solve the murder, complicated by the fact that Katy is found at the site of an archaeological dig, short lived however, as the city will soon be building a highway over the site.
Thus, we get the complication of those who want and don't want this highway, those who tend to profit from it, those who oppose it on environmental and cultural grounds. All these concerns surround the case, as well as the possibility that this murder has a connection with the disappearance of the two kids twenty years ago. As these two events seemingly match up, Ryan goes deeper and deeper into a hysterical state, as he tries to remember what happens. His ruminations, almost hallucinations, bollock up the investigation, his relationship with Cassie, and his place on the murder squad. Eventually, they limit the suspects down to two people, both working on the archaeological dig. Ryan comes up with the clue, the fact that a trowel was used in the murder, implicating the diggers.
As things unravel, nothing is as it seems. Ryan is taken in by Rosalind Devlin, the sexy older sister, who we find is a psychopath, hateful of her much admired younger sister. She uses her wiles to convince Damien, one of the student archaeologists that she loves him, that she's been abused by her parents, a result of her sister's lies. She convinces him that if he kills Katy, the abuse will stop. He's obviously a dim bulb though she's not, a women who can lie with impunity, has no conscience, and gets off in the end because it cannot be proved that she instigated the whole murder.
Ryan ends up demoted from the Murder Squad because O'Kelly, the chief, discovers that this case is personal for Ryan. He loses Cassie to a fellow officer, Sam O'Neil who worked with the two of them on the case. He must live with the fact that it's his fault for messing up not only the case but his relationship with Cassie. His life, in many ways, has ended, no longer a detective, no hope of a relationship with Cassie, not trusted by O'Kelly, and living alone, seemingly friendless. I am not sure if he appears in any of her next novels; I don't think so because I know that Cassie Maddox does. It's interesting to note that we see the novel through Ryan's, not Cassie's eyes, yet she ends up in the next novel, not him. It was a good read, complicated, a bit far fetched in the end, a deep psychological study of someone who ends up ruining his life, throwing away everything he has wanted
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