The perfect mystery to relax and curl up with – beautifully written and deeply immersive!

A beautiful landscape…

It began as the project of a lifetime – a group of archaeologists, uncovering the remains of a Roman settlement on a beautiful hill in the glorious English countryside.

A looming threat…

But, the idyll is shattered when they begin receiving threatening letters. Former city detective Jake Jackson, now enjoying a quieter life in the local village, is pulled in to investigate.

A killer closing in…

Soon, threatening letters are the least of their problems, when a murderer strikes. And now the race is on for Jake to find them, before they kill again…

Reviews

Praise for Stig Abell

‘Loved this. Multiple layers of delight for crime fiction fans’ Lee Child

‘I LOVED this. I found it totally immersive…The writing is very classy’ Ann Cleeves

‘An immersive, intelligent delight with huge atmosphere and heart. My favourite new crime series' Lucy Foley

‘Abell is a skilled storyteller…highly recommend’ Karin Slaughter

‘Utterly beautiful descriptive prose’ Jane Casey

‘A darkly elegant, thrilling, escapist slice of countryside crime’ Chris Whitaker

A deep, searching novel’ A. J. Finn

‘Perfect to get lost with next to the fireside’ Dermot O’Leary

‘An outstanding debut’ Jeffrey Archer

‘Stylish…a more than promising debut’ The Times

‘An absorbing tale’ Sun

‘A vivid, atmospheric debut’ Daily Mail

‘A cosy crime read with an appealing protagonist’ Guardian

‘Characters so real we feel we know them’ Jeffery Deaver

‘Brilliant, gripping, fantastic … I can’t put it down’ Chris Evans

‘An atmospheric, often meditative, and beautifully written crime novel’ Vaseem Khan

‘A joyful dive into the detective genre’ Observer

‘A tense and twisty crime thriller’ iPaper

‘A wonderful tale, magnificently told’ Sam Holland

‘Beautifully written, as ever, and with a twist that truly knocked me sideways’ Andrew Taylor

About the author

Stig Abell believes that discovering a crime fiction series to enjoy is one of the great pleasures in life. His first novel, Death Under A Little Sky, introduced Jake Jackson and his attempt to get away from his former life in the beautiful area around Little Sky, which was followed by his second novel, Death in a Lonely Place. This book is the third in the series, and Stig is absolutely delighted that there are more on the way. Away from books, he co-presents the breakfast show on Times Radio, a station he helped to launch in 2020. Before that he was a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row and was the editor and publisher of the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in London with his wife, three children and two independent-minded cats called Boo and Ninja (his children named them, obviously).