lmawrites
𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡, 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓
In the crypt beneath St. Mary's Church, Jennie Patterson's body is found intact. Missing since 1990. Her tongue cut out with surgical care. A sentence carved beside her: She's prettier when she doesn't talk.
Nyx Sinclair arrives in Ashworth with Winston Reds and perfect suits. After one fatal mistake at Scotland Yard, she is sent to a town that wants nothing to do with her. Control is her religion. She finds it in rituals, in Beethoven, in strangers' beds where she trades flesh for quiet, but never her heart.
Owen Warner stopped living in Afghanistan. Former soldier. Chronic insomniac. He survives on muscle memory: work, ride through sleepless dark, breathe, repeat. He waits without knowing-for proof he isn't just counting down to his own end.
Thrown together in this dying town, they will hunt a murderer and do everything to bring justice to Jennie. In the process, they might save each other. Or sink deeper. Because in Ashworth, they don't only bury bodies, they bury secrets. And digging them up has a price.
Sometimes, that price is 𝐲𝐨𝐮.