In the ninth Tom Thorne novel, never before published in the United States, Thorne investigates a troubling case of conspiracy–a wife who arranges to have her husband murdered. He turns up alive… and other people begin to turn up dead.

A decade ago, Alan Langford’s charred remains were discovered in his burnt-out car. His wife Donna was found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband and sentenced to ten years in prison. But before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. The man she hates with every fibre of her being–the man she paid to have murdered–seems very much alive and well. But how is it possible that her husband is still alive? Where is he? Who sent the photo, and why?