Previously published as Death's Door

A mile out to sea, East Hills is a narrow strip of white sand and shifting dunes. Cut off by treacherous tides and a deadly rip current, it has no inhabitants. The only way to get there is by ferry. Once you’re there, you’re stranded until it returns. No way on. No way off. And nowhere to hide.

DI Peter Shaw is sealing his house against the winter sea-spray when his phone rings. DS Valentine isn’t happy about it — but Forensics want Shaw on a suspicious death in Creake.

Thirty-five-year-old Marianne lies dead in her bed. Pills on the bedside table. Suicide, says Valentine.

But Shaw isn’t convinced. The duvet is twisted, the sheet is torn. And on the outside of the bedroom window — a kiss mark on the glass.

Then their investigation uncovers a chilling link to a 20-year-old cold case.

On a hot August day in 1994, a young lifeguard was murdered on the remote sands of East Hills. Seventy-five people were on that beach. One of them was Marianne. One of them was the killer.

Was Marianne murdered because of what she saw that day?

To find the answers, Shaw and Valentine must track down everyone who was at East Hills that fateful day . . . before another witness is silenced.