When a body is found near Beachy Head, the police chalk it up to suicide — a tragic but not uncommon end in these parts. But local psychotherapist Patricia Phillips isn’t convinced. The victim? Her three o’clock patient, Henry Clayton.

The cause of death is supposedly self-inflicted. Yet Pat can’t shake the belief that someone wanted Henry Clayton dead. She spends her working life listening to histories and secrets, and she has a nose for when a story doesn’t quite ring true.

Drawn from the therapy room to the crime scene, Pat begins to notice what others appear to overlook. At her side is her best friend Prichard — a home-brewer of fearsome, stomach-turning concoctions, an excellent cook, and a man who seems to get along with everyone. Which makes him useful for infiltrating village life.

As Pat and Prichard look beneath the village’s thin veneer of normality — one that barely conceals its appetites — they discover a killer hiding in plain sight.