One hot summer’s evening, ten-year-old Piper Chase went off on her pink bicycle towards the dark woods on Black Heart Lane.

Detective Kimberley King knows that the first twenty-four hours in a missing child investigation are the most critical. Piper was heading to a sleepover at her best friend Miley’s house, just like a hundred times before. But now Piper’s grandparents are blaming themselves, shaking with grief, and Kimberley knows the family will never be the same. With no witnesses, and darkness falling, she begins to fear the worst. She longs to find the little girl with wide blue eyes and an infectious smile, but when her team discovers Piper’s body in a woodland clearing, lying on a bed of moss, something inside her dies.

Then she gets a call that chills her to the bone. Piper’s friend Miley has gone missing too.

Desperate to find the monster who has taken these little girls, Kimberley chases down all the leads she has. The summer camp counsellor, who the little girls hero-worshipped. Piper’s downbeat uncle, who arrived back in town the day she disappeared…

And as another dark night descends, Kimberley can’t stop thinking about Miley, trapped and frightened. With the clock ticking, Kimberley knows she must act fast, before another innocent life is stolen.