In 1978, when four young university students, after a night of carousing, make their way home, one of them, Alex Gilbey, stumbles across the nearly dead body of nineteen year old Rosie Duff, lying in the snow banks of a desolate Scottish cemetery. While they gather around her body in shock, little did they know that all their lives would be irrevocably changed. Though Alex, the fastest of them, runs for help while the others try to keep Rosie, whom they all know, alive, help arrives too little, too late, for Rosie.
With no real evidence against anyone else and their alibis soft, these four good Samaritans, who were covered in Rosie's blood through their efforts in keeping her alive, find themselves suspects in her murder. Though never formally charged with the crime and with no actual proof or evidence of their guilt or complicity in the murder, the stench of suspicion would follow them and change their lives forever. Rosie's crime, however, would remain unsolved for years.
Twenty-five years later, the case would be re-opened as a cold case. Alex and his friends, who had gone on to rebuild their lives would suddenly find old wounds being re-opened, as the stench of suspicion would once again waft around them. This time, however, they would begin dying under suspicious circumstances. Clearly someone has decided them guilty of Rosie's murder and is exacting retribution. Alex knows that unless he acts quickly to try to solve the mystery of Rosie's murder, he himself may be marked for murder.
This is a well-written murder mystery that is essentially bifurcated into two segments: those events that transpired in 1978 and those events that transpired twenty-five years later. There are many masterful twists and turns in the story and the characters are all well-fleshed, making for an absorbing, page turning read. This is a carefully crafted murder mystery that fans of the genre will love.