Scaring Crows

Dave Shackleton could sense that something was not quite right at Hardacre farm when he arrived to make his morning collection of milk. The cows had been let out of their field and were jostling at the milking parlour - but of the farmers there was no sign. Until Shackleton enters the stone farmhouse.

For inside he finds Aaron Sommers - a fatal shotgun wound his chest. Next to him lies the body of his son Jack, and by the door their abandoned shotgun. Was it a case of murder - then suicide?

The forensic evidence soon suggests otherwise, leaving Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy with another case on her hands - murder by person or persons unknown. And what is she to make of the news that Aaron had a daughter, Ruthie - for the young woman has vanished.

Has she also been killed and her body hidden? Or is she the killer? A massive police search is set in motion to find Ruthie Sommers. Either alive or dead…