Detective Elinor Saxby thinks she’s found her perfect rural retreat: a crooked little cottage amid the towering pines of the New Forest. But bad things still happen in beautiful places . . .

On a lonely stretch of shingle, where the Solent laps the forest’s edge, something terrible is about to wash ashore.

The bloated body of a young man. Several days dead.

A ragged wound gapes in his chest. Because this was no accident. He’s been shot at close range, then dumped.

City cop Elinor’s on the case — and utterly out of her depth.

The frosty coastguard tells Elinor the victim is a stranger. From out of town. But Elinor would swear she knows more than she’s saying . . .

Before long, a second body is discovered deep in the forest.

Same wound. Same cold-blooded MO. Same killer?

It’s up to Elinor to unravel the truth from the lies, before more victims die. But she’d better watch her back.

Because here in the New Forest, secrets run deeper — and darker — than the murky waters of the Solent itself.

Trusting the wrong person might just cost Elinor everything . . .

Fans of Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, Stig Abell and Carol Cole are sure to be mesmerized by this atmospheric British mystery, set amid the hauntingly beautiful terrain of the New Forest.