Without Trace: An utterly gripping detective crime thriller with an unexpected twist (DI Steel: 20)

DI Geraldine Steel knows people go missing all the time; often because they don't want to be found. So when her partner Ian asks her to look into the disappearance of his buddy's girlfriend, her first instinct is to reassure him there's no need for concern.

Until she's called to a suspected murder, and all her instincts tell her she's right about the identity of the victim.

The woman has earth and leaf mould and fragments of twigs in her hair, her nose, her mouth, under her nails, clinging to her clothes. It's as if she'd been completely encased in earth. Yet she was found on the pavement, at the side of a suburban road, where she wasn't in contact with any soil or mud.

Had she managed to escape a living grave?

Without a crime scene, the investigation focuses on her boyfriend. But Ian insists his friend is incapable of murder, and Steel is torn. Without evidence, she knows their case is weak. But can she let a possible killer go free?

Then another young woman is reported missing. Unless he has an accomplice, they have an innocent man in custody. And Steel is running out of time . . .

PRAISE FOR LEIGH RUSSELL'S GERALDINE STEEL SERIES:

'Unmissable' Lee Child

'Brilliant' Jeffery Deaver