IT’S THREE WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. AND INSIDE BROMGROVE CATHEDRAL, A KILLER IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT.

Local teacher Suzanne Hayne is dedicated, devout — and very, very dead.

Snow is falling. Mulled wine is warming. Christmas is coming. But Suzanne’s body lies sprawled inside Bromgrove Cathedral’s relics centre, strangled to death.

Detective Gil Markham is called in to investigate, and soon discovers the dead woman had a remarkable talent for making enemies.

The former director she helped push out of a job. The teacher sacked after a complaint she made. Colleagues who called her a meddling busybody behind her back. And an anti-religion campaigner, who despises everything the centre stands for.

Any one of them might have hated her enough to kill. But as the bells ring out for Advent, Markham is running out of time to work out which.

Then a second body is found inside the cathedral, posed as if in prayer.

Someone is settling old scores, and the killer isn’t finished — not until the last carol has been sung.

A wonderfully witty and twist-packed British crime mystery, perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths, Faith Martin, Clare Chase, P.F. Ford and LJ Ross.