Joseph O'Loughlin appears to have the perfect life - a beautiful wife, a loving daughter and a successful career as a clinical psychologist. But even the most flawless existence is only a loose thread away from unravelling. All it takes is a murdered girl, a troubled young patient and the biggest lie of his life. When a young woman is found dead by a London canal with multiple stab wounds - all of them self-inflicted - the police ask Joe for help. Are they dealing with a murder or a suicide? Who is the victim? The brutalised body he views at the mortuary turns out to be someone he knows - Catherine Mary McBride, a nurse and former colleague . . . At the same time, he is grappling with a troubled young patient, Bobby Moran, who is haunted by terrible headaches and violent dreams that are becoming more real. Caught in a complex web of deceit and obsessed by images of the slain girl, Joe embarks upon a search that will take him into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
