Life, death and vanilla slices

Jean Collins is in a coma. She stepped out into the middle of the road without looking and was run over by a motorbike. But what had distracted her? And why was she carrying a box of vanilla slices - the cream cakes she only ever bought for special celebrations? For Jean's daughter Anne, these questions are the least of her concern. Travelling back up north to visit her mother, Anne frets about leaving her two sons behind in London - boys who are rapidly becoming men, and not very pleasant ones at that. And there are secrets waiting for Anne, back in the house where she grew up. Secrets she doesn't want to think about - that she buried a long time ago.