Mark Billingham is one of England’s best known and top-selling crime writers. In this, the gripping ninth Tom Thorne novel, a man long thought killed by his suffering wife turns up alive. And then 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 fiber 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 not dead? Where is he? Who sent the photo, and why?