Inspector Vignoles

March 1946. The railways are falling apart, rationing is getting worse and black marketeers are at work. For Violet McIntyre, a dressmaker living in Woodford Halse, it is a struggle to make ends meet. Her life becomes inextricably linked to an investigation that Detective Inspector Charles Vignoles of the Railway Detective Department is pursuing.

As the Big Freeze of 1947 grips the land, the railways struggle in their battle against the snow, and refugees from the recent war in Europe, freezing in the displaced persons' camp at Finmere, are forced to resort to desperate measures to stay warm. The snow lies deep as a murder of crows sits and waits upon a telegraph wire along the edge of a lonely railway cutting. A steam engine storms out of Catesby tunnel, and a young woman is thrown from the passing train. A killer is stalking the line....