The devastating December floods have abated and the Ides of March dawns unseasonably warm. DI Elizabeth Jewell ponders on the significance of the date and hopes it will not prove as inauspicious for her as it did for Julius Caesar. What could possibly go wrong with hosting a dinner party? Jewell soon finds out after a call from DS Patterson. Abandoning her plans, she heads to a remote rural area previously devastated by weeks of torrential rain. A lock keeper has discovered a badly decomposed body in an old culvert. With no means to identify the victim, Jewell’s team struggle to make progress in finding the killer. Two small communities who live on the flood plain exacerbate her problems. A group of traveller’s squatting on a farm paddock and the residents of a mobile home site don’t always see eye to eye. Unknown to Jewell and her team, someone is closely monitoring the investigation. Who is this observer? How do they know so much, and what is their agenda?
