Detective Sergeant Hunter Kerr and his partner DC Grace Marshall are called to the scene of a brutal slaying; the victim is a 14 year-old girl.
The killer has been disturbed but he has left behind a puzzle. What is the significance of the marks gouged into the girl’s torso and why has a playing card been left with the body?
As Barnwell Major Investigation Team struggle to resolve the mystery they are confronted with another gruesome discovery; the mummified remains of a teenage girl are unearthed from the slurry of a former colliery site. This corpse bears all the hallmarks of the first slaying and yet this body has been buried for well over a decade.
They soon realise that a savage killer is stalking Yorkshire, preying on young girls, and with the discovery of the bodies comes a series of revelations about the past.
For Detective Sergeant Hunter Kerr and his team, the race against time to prevent further murders is complicated by the fact that several of his men have been involved on the periphery of earlier crimes, without even knowing it. And as the death toll mounts as more bodies are unearthed and new victims succumb to the murderer’s sick appetites, he finds that this case comes very close to home.
Very close indeed...
When Jane Madarang's neighbor Natalie kills herself and leaves behind cryptic instructions, it's up to Jane and her classmates to unearth deadly secrets.
*****
Natalie Driscoll is dead.
She threw herself out a window and left her neighbor Jane to unravel their town's darkest secrets. Following Natalie's instructions leads Jane to three other high school students who all have something to hide. The four of them must carry out Natalie's final errand while solving the mysteries written in her diary. But the secrets they unearth may be far more dangerous than what they ever imagined.
Content and/or trigger warning: This story contains scenes of suicide, violence and murder that may be triggering for some readers.
[[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]