How do you make people love you? Emma Davey, who loved gemstones and life, found it easy. Everyone loved her. Until someone put a black bin liner over her head and kicked her to death. For others, the quest is harder. Elisabeth Kennedy, Emma's older sister and a disgraced ex-police officer, considers herself beyond love, or even self-respect. She is haunted by Emma's death and her own humiliating attempts to lure the killer into a confession. Then she is the victim of a senseless attack which adds physical scars to a fractured spirit.

Every New Year's Eve, Hank Mitchell and his older brother Jacob make a pilgrimage to their parents' graves. This year Jacob's friend Lou comes with them. As they drive through thick snow towards the cemetery, a fox runs across the road, and they skid on the ice and crash. Jacob's dog chases the fox, followed by the three men. Beating their way through the drifts, they come upon a small plane, belly down in the snow. In the pilot's seat is a dead man, his eyes pecked out by crows, in the back they discover a duffel bag. In the bag is over four million dollars in cash......

Forsyth presents five brilliantly ingenious tales of murder, justice, intrigue and revenge. A miracle in war-torn Siena, a drug smuggling heist on an international flight, a brutal urban murder, an incandescent art scam and the brilliant novella 'Whispering Wind'