With its unfair, caravan sites and social clubs, Swann's Lake is the ideal weekend retreat for working class Mancunians. But it is also the setting for the brutal murder of Robbie Peterson, a criminal-turned-club-owner, found dead in his office, a six-inch nail driven deep into his skull.
Brought up from London with Sergeant Bob Rutter, Woodend soon realises this is a far from straightforward case. Why was Robbie's office broken into twice on the day of his funeral? What caused Jack Clough, Robbie's son-in-law, to attack his own brother on the night of the murder? And why, later, does Annabel Peterson, who was educated privately and then turned her back on her family, suddenly try to scratch her sister Jenny's eyes out? As the case unfolds, Woodend uncovers several crimes but it is only as it draws to a close that he realises the murder has nothing to do with Robbie's criminal past -- and everything to do with his domestic present.
