When macho thriller writer Graham Tomlinson is rebranded by his agent as “Tamara Wilde, Mistress of Cosy Crime”, he swaps Yorkshire noir for the picture-postcard Cotswolds – only to find the village of Flitchcombe-on-the-Water is far from cosy…

With its eccentric locals, simmering feuds and a book group bristling with dark secrets, he is surrounded by irresistible material for his new novel. But when the man he has chosen as the victim in his fictional plot turns up dead, fiction and reality collide spectacularly.

From drugged hunting dogs to clandestine rites on Gallows Hill, Graham is dragged into a tangle of ancient scandals and modern crime. His life depends on him embracing both sides of himself, the tough Tom Stone and intuitive Tamara Wilde, and uncovering the truth before it is too late…