In England's East Midlands, a harried police detective juggles multiple cases that soon reveal the depths of human depravity... DI Tim Yates has been following up for months on reports of missing farm machinerywith no successwhen a local farmer and philanthropist is physically assaulted. Could this be a lead? If so, it doesn't take Yates very far, since the victim, Jack Fovargue, refuses to accept any help. Meanwhile, there's a more urgent case to attend toa decapitated body has been found in the Fossdyke Canal. This may be the first clue that finally connects a series of recent disappearances: a paper girl out on her rounds; a prostitute abducted off the street; an immigrant woman who vanished after stepping off a bus. After frogmen find two more corpses in the canal, and Yates's researcher wife notes a similarity to a long-ago case someone is already in prison for, the situation starts becoming as murky as the canal itself...
