After a chance encounter, sisters Julia and Amelia Land hire private detective Jackson Brodie to look into the case of their younger sister, Olivia, who vanished 30 years ago. In going through their late father's effects, they find Olivia's stuffed toy, Blue Mouse, which they had not seen since their sister vanished from a tent their parents had pitched in the garden on a hot summer night. Meanwhile, Brodie takes on the case of Laura Wyre who was killed in her father Theo's law offices. He's not satisfied with the pace of the police investigation and wants Brodie, an ex-policeman, to investigate on his own. Theo is convinced that the killer was after him and that his daughter was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lastly, Brodie is hired by a nurse, Shirley Manning, who is trying to locate her niece Tanya who she put into care after the child's mother killed her husband.
—garykmcd