At dawn on a lonely stretch of road, a body is found hanging from an ancient gallows left behindafter a country show. Hours earlier, DCI Kate Daniels had seen the victim alive. With her leave period imminent, she's forced to step aside when DCI James Atkins is called in to investigate. There's bad blood between them.

When Kate discovers that Atkins' daughter was an eyewitness to a fight involving the victim, the two detectives lock horns and Atkins is bumped off the case. It's the trigger for a vicious attack on Kate, exposing a secret she's kept hidden for years and unearthing an even darker one.

Shaken but undeterred, Kate sets out to solve a case that has shocked a close-knit village community. As suspects emerge, she uncovers a curious historical connection with a hangman, a culture of systematic bullying, a web of deceit and a deep-seated psychosis, any one of which could be motive for murder.
Praise for Mari Hannah
'DCI Kate Daniels: a Northerner to join the roster of top literary detectives' The Times
'Taut storytelling and razor-sharp dialogue . . . a novel not to be missed' Daily Mail
'They're just great reads' Stephen Fry