Sometimes a secret is all you have left.



Detective Ngaire Blakes is back on the case when a skeletonized murder victim is discovered—a crime that took place during the Springbok Tours of 1981. A period that pitted father against son, town against city, and police against protestors.



When the victim is identified as Sam Andie, a young African American man transplanted from the States to NZ by his family, Ngaire must investigate whether racial motives were behind the death. In line with evidence from the forensic pathologist, a police baton could easily have been the murder weapon. Or was his death connected to Sam's girlfriend—a young woman convicted of a savage double homicide in the same week that Sam disappeared?



With files missing, memories hazy, and a strident false confession muddying the waters, Ngaire must sift through the detritus if she hopes to find the truth hiding deep beneath the lies.