Set in Northumberland, in the ex-mining small town of Collemby (which is fictional but very realistically evoked of such mining towns) Alice Teale has gone missing. Someone saw her leaving school grounds at 9pm and she's never been seen since.

It shouldn't be hard to find someone who knows something. These mining towns are close-knitted, small and everyone knows everyone to some degree .Very well evoked and the setting feels real, with real life characters and issues. It's a forgotten place where even the school was failing until the new head John Morgan turned it around.

The police in this case are perhaps even more interesting than the case itself - DC Beth Winter is a fast track police officer, who has been taken in her first proper posting on DCI Everleigh's team,. She's working with DS Lucas Black who has some rumours flying around him. He shot a man when on the job and he's been vilified ever since.

Has Alice run away? She hasn't got the best family and that 's saying something! Her dad is a bit creepy and her brother seems strange. Alice seemed popular and good. Hopefully the diary she wrote in the lead up to her disappearance will shed some light on where she could be. (That was particular strength of the novel these two narrative threads)

There seems a lot more to come with this police team and Alice Teale might have disappeared but I hope Winter and Black don't!