In the quiet, remote landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fens, the past is never truly buried — and neither are its secrets. Journalist Philip Dryden helps find justice for some of those who have been silent for too long. But he’s scared.

He is scared of loud noises, scared of pain, scared of dogs to the point of petrification, scared of heights, scared of small spaces and, crucially, scared of looking scared — a final twist which has ironically secured him a reputation for courage.

Dryden is pursuing a story in Jude’s Ferry. The quiet fenland village’s only claim to fame is that it never recorded a single crime in its entire thousand-year history.

Until now.

In a bricked-up cellar beneath the New Ferry Inn, a skeleton is hanging from a beam, a noose around its neck.

The air stale and thick as the body twists slowly, its wrists tied.

Dryden wonders what other secrets are lurking within this close-knit community.

He gets his answer as a man is pulled from the nearby River Ouse just two days later.

This cold case is heating up. And it’s only the beginning . . .

An unputdownable crime mystery, laced with dark secrets and a protagonist who is as flawed as he is determined, perfect for fans of Joy Ellis, Caro Ramsay, Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, LJ Ross or Jack Cartwright.