Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, first introduced in The Various Haunts of Men, is on a painting holiday in Venice when he is summoned home by a telephone call. He has family problems to face, and the stress and grind of running a busy police station. When a little boy is snatched as he stands with his satchel at the gate of his home, waiting for his lift to school, an ordinary community realizes that terror and evil are in their very midst.

(It is spring in the quiet English cathedral town of Lafferton when a little boy is snatched as he stands with his satchel at the gate of his home, waiting for his lift to school. Meawhile a severely handicapped young woman hovers between life and death and an ex-con finds it impossible to go straight.... Haunting and truthful, gripping and convincing, The Pure in Heart is a fascinating crime novel and an utterly absorbing read. )