Family fights, suicides, sirens, death, and even a ghost. Everything happens here Attorney Sarah Fortune is dispatched to a small coastal town to straighten out the financial affairs of the eccentric Pardoe family. The three siblings and their mother, who is suffering from dementia, own most of Merton on Sea. The business of the estate should be simple enough, and Sarah sees the job as an opportunity for a mini-vacationa chance to get out of the city.But she soon discovers that the family, and the town itself, are afflicted by a past filled with guilt, pain, and unrequited love. Most haunting of all, though, is the legacy of a suicide that took place two years ago, when a beautiful woman with an uncanny resemblance to Sarah walked into the sea and never came back Fans of Ruth Rendell and Julia Spencer-Fleming will love this atmospheric psychological thriller.