Over the course of three nights, Harry - a stranger who sits down next to Jury one night in a London pub - spins a complicated story about a good friend of his whose wife, son and dog disappeared over nine-months ago during a house viewing in Surrey. There has been no trace of them and no clue as to what happened. But the dog has come back.Dumbfounded, Jury wonders if Harry Johnson is just winding him up. Or did it really happen? When Jury investigates, all seems to be just as Harry described it. Until he finds the body...

Martha Grimes is a self-acclaimed Anglophile who has been publishing a book (and sometimes two) every year for the past twenty-five years.Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grimes earned her BA and MA from the University of Maryland. Though she is best known for her detective fiction series that features Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector, Martha Grimes is the author of two further book series - the Andi Oliver series and the Emma Graham series - as well as a collection of poems, a short story and a further two novels.In 1983, Grimes was the recipient of the Nero Wolfe Award for the best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace. In 2012, she was awarded the title of Grand Master by The Edgar Awards Mystery Writers of America.