Usa Today BestsellerIn this newest installment of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge is faced with his most perplexing case yet- a murder with no body, and a killer who can only be a ghost. Spring, 1921. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to the sea-battered village of Walmer on the coast of Essex, where amongst the salt flats and a military airfield lies Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house may prove his most bewildering witness yet. She claims she saw a violent murder-but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer- Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war. Everyone in the village believes that Lady Benton's losses have turned her mind-she is, after all, a grieving widow and mother-but the woman Rutledge interviews is rational and self-possessed. And then there is Captain Nelson- what really happened to him in the war? The more Rutledge delves into this baffling case, the more suspicious tragedies he uncovers.