Simon Vance

Spring, 1921. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to the sea-battered village of Walmer on the coast of Essex. At Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past, the lady of the house claims she saw a violent murder-- but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer: Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war. Everyone in the village believes that the losses of the grieving widow...