A stand-alone murder mystery, number nine in the series.

Meet maverick British detective DL Skelgill, "mad, bad and just a little bit cozy".

When latter-day lothario and expert kayaker Roger Alcock disappears on the night of the "Great Cockermouth Flood", his attractive wife Maeve takes 24 hours longer than might reasonably be expected to notify the authorities. But when Roger’s corpse washes up on the Solway coast, a postmortem suggests his death could legitimately be classified as misadventure. DI Skelgill, however - engaged as a rescuer to the inundated Cumbrian town - detects a sinister undercurrent that pervades the tightly knit community in which Roger Alcock moved. As the floodwater recedes, reasons surface why Roger’s erstwhile associates might celebrate his demise.

Could this be a murder - of the kind that suits the innocent as well as the guilty to hold their peace? Could spurned lovers and fleeced creditors and others who might benefit be acting in silent concert? Jealousy, revenge, greed...these are sentiments that trouble Skelgill - for he realises that unless he can divine a motive, he cannot begin to ascribe a crime.

To penetrate the mystery he enlists a female duo, a visiting TV reporter and the sister-in-law of the late Roger Alcock. But are these alluring ladies simply playing him for their own devices? While DS Jones is temporarily absent, Skelgill becomes doubly conflicted. Barely treading water in the case, he flounders in the perpetrator’s wake. Can his famous "sixth sense" come to his rescue in time - or will a second murder erase forever all trace of the killer?