Bank Holiday Monday, and beautiful Zellah Wilding, straight-A student at St Margaret’s, prefect, future Head Girl, lies dead near the famous Wormwood Scrubs prison in London. What was this good girl from a strict Christian family doing out there, dressed to kill, when she was supposed to be at a sleep-over with schoolfriends? A secret boyfriend from a run-down estate and a recently-released rapist look tasty; or could the nearby fairground or the eponymous prison have something to do with it?

The mysteries only seem to proliferate as the investigation progresses, and the more Bill Slider knows, the less he understands about this very secret girl…