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Itžs a hot dry summer in Dendale. Therežs a dam being built which will drown the town in a few week, but the children of the town just enjoy the weather and never think about the future. Within a short period of time, 2 seven year old slim blonde girls go missing. Most of the construction men keep to themselves, but Geordie Allgood is known in the village, so he is brought in for questioning. Then Betsy Allgood is attacked by Benny Lightfoot, who is considered odd by the locals, but Betsy escapes, and finally, Mary Wulfstan, another slim, blonde, 7 year old disappears, as does Benny. The village is flooded and most of the villagers move to the next valley and the larger community of Danby. Fifteen years later, itžs another hot dry summer and the bones of Dendale are beginning to reappear. Another blonde 7 year old girl disappears and Bennyžs Backū is spray painted on the Danby bridge. She has taken her dog for a walk before breakfast. The dog limps home, but she never appears. Her mother was a Dendale 11-year-old when the first three children disappeared. Dalziel was involved in the first set of disappearances and the cases have preyed on his mind ever since. Now a similar situation has erupted with many of the same players. He is determined to find the newly missing child and finally bury the pthers by finding out what really happened. He drives his assistants, Pasco and Wield, as hard as he pushes himself, and the villagers, especially the village Constable, Nobby Clark, and the local schoolmistress, both of whom had held the same positions in Dendale, so many years before, all cooperate. There are fascinating parallels between the past and the present. Most of the people who had been involved in the doings of that long past hot dry summer are involved in thisone, although relationships among them may have changed. Dalziel, showing his empathy, becomes less of a caricature and Pasco draws closer to his wife and daughter. I usually read this series in whatever order the books come to hand, but after finishing this I went out and bought the one just preceding it, because events in THE WOOD BEYOND have a direct bearing on this case. The UK edition is published by HarperCollins, and has a much handsomer cover 
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, March 2002
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