Sayer returns to art crime investigation with a promotion to detective inspector in the elite Art and Antiques Unit at New Scotland Yard Her first assignment is to join a major investigation into an international art crime ring As she begins her new role she is also handpicked by a senior Home Office bureaucrat to look into the origin of a painting found in a village in midWales in the home of a recentlydeceased judge As she balances the competing casework assigned a deacon at the local church in the village Tregynon comes into her sights John Farrell had been open about his past life of crime and imprisonment when he was appointed at St Deiniols But is there more unshared Bit by bit between events in London Dubai and a small village in Wales Sayer unravels the secret of the painting and the burden still carried by the Powys Deacon