“An extremely accomplished, traditional mystery in the PD James mode... an absolute treat.”—Irish Times

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

When a beloved yet mysterious monk is brutally murdered, Detective Sergeant George Cross faces a case with no leads, while his personal life is thrown into disarray

DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now that she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers—but this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. So when the body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol, Cross is eager to throw himself into the case.

The problem is, no one in the Bristol station has any leads. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

Cross’s dogged investigation reveals that while the monk was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, he was also a very wealthy man—and he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin, after all.