Most homicides are young male on young male, and that's bad enough. But as a father of two daughters, DCI Bill Slider can't help but take it harder when the victim is a young woman. Rhianne Morgan, just eighteen, waiting for her A-level results, lies dead in her comfortable middle-class home in a nice, respectable area. Neighbours remember rows with her stepfather. Schoolmates talk of a boyfriend humiliatingly dumped. Her bestie mentions an unnamed new boyfriend, who possibly provided her with drugs. But the back gate was open, and anyone could have walked in. Did she even know her assailant? Secrets and lies flourished around this troubled teenager, a thicket of thorns Slider and his team must cut through to find the truth. Who killed Rhianne? As Slider's boss says, it's always the first person you suspect. Except when it isn't.