When investigative journalist, Alexi Ellis, falls victim to the Sunday Sentinel’s cutbacks, she packs up her car, grabs Marvin, her anti-social feral cat, and hot-foots it out of London, intent upon licking her wounds in private. She heads for Lambourn, the valley of the racehorse, where an old college friend runs a hotel and Alexi is assured a shoulder to cry on.

But this idyllic country paradise is not all it appears to be. A woman has gone missing under mysterious circumstances and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Unemployed she might be, but Alexi still has a nose for a story. So too does Tyler Maddox, ex-Metropolitan Police detective turned private eye, who is also trying to find out what’s happened to Natalie Parker.

Tyler, driven out of the police by a vicious press campaign that accused him of racism, hates all journalists on principle. But Natalie had been using his sister’s online dating agency and Tyler needs to find her before his sister’s business gets dragged through the mire.

Reluctantly, Alexi, Tyler and Marvin join forces. As they delve deeper into Natalie’s secret past, they discover rich adoptive parents from whom Natalie absconded while still a teenager, huge, unexplained amounts of cash and connections to a London escort agency. Is Natalie still alive and, if so, what can have made her turn her back on her comfortable life and thriving business?

Someone doesn’t want Alexi and Tyler to find the answers to the questions their investigation throws up and will do whatever it takes to ensure they don’t…