On a moonlit road in Hampstead, Walter Hartright is accosted by a stranger dressed from head to toe in white, who asks the way to London. Shortly thereafter he is overtaken by a carriage in pursuit of this mysterious woman who has evidently escaped from an asylum. He then unwinds a story of abduction, madness, false identity and shameful family secret.

Little Walsingham has always been famous for religious visions, so when Cathbad, now living with Judy, sees a vision of the Virgin Mary, no one is too shocked. But then a woman dressed in a blue cloak is found dead, and people begin to see the apparition in a different light. The woman is identified as a patient in a local psychiatric hospital. DCI Nelson investigates and finds that staff and patients in the small, privately run hospital seem reluctant...

Will Hurley was an attractive, charming, and impressive student at Dublin's elite St. John's College--and Ireland's most prolific serial killer. He stalked and drowned his five young victims in the muddy waters of the Grand Canal, and is currently serving a life sentence in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital. Alison Smith's world imploded when Liz, her best friend, became the victim of the Canal Killer--and then her boyfriend Will confessed....