The Drowning Ground

Chief Inspector Guillermo Downes is a long way from his native home of Argentina, heading up the police department in the English Cotswolds. But he isn't far enough to escape the memories of his past, or to lose the baggage he carries from the loss of someone close to him. So when a young girl, Gail, disappears--the second girl in the span of two weeks to go missing-- Downes makes a promise to the child's mother to find her no matter what it takes. Ten years later, that promise remains unfulfilled. And though the girls are never far from his thoughts, the job goes on. The body of a local man, Frank Hurst, has just been found dead, sprawled on a hill in town. Frank Hurst also had a past. His second wife drowned in their swimming pool and his daughter, Rebecca, left home soon after. Downes remembers the case well. And although many in the town think Frank murdered his wife, his alibi was confirmed. Still, it now seems that there might be a connection between Frank and the missing girls, which might give Chief Inspector Downes another chance to make good on the promise he made all those years ago. With the kind of insights into life in a seemingly peaceful village that made Broadchurch so powerful, James Marrison's The Vanishing Land introduces a terrific new voice in crime fiction.