In the pretty English town of Linchester, the truth is worth killing for.

Young solicitor David Centre leaves Canada for a fresh start in the quiet English town of Linchester, he expects routine wills, property disputes . . . maybe even a little boredom. Instead, his very first client walks in with a case that could ruin lives — including his own.

Stephen Kirk has just lost both parents in a devastating fire in their family home. Now, as he prepares to inherit, a long-estranged relative emerges with a shocking accusation:

Stephen is illegitimate — and has no right to the estate.

As Centre digs into the family’s past, he uncovers missing wills, wartime secrets and mounting evidence that the fire may have been deliberate. Someone is determined to seize the Kirk fortune — and will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

And the truth is something far more deadly than a legal battle . . .

Perfect for fans of Michael Gilbert, P.D. James, Cyril Hare and John Mortimer, this is a masterfully tense legal thriller steeped in intrigue, moral conflict and classic British suspense.

SETTING

Linchester in the late 1960s is a quiet English provincial town of narrow Georgian streets, Victorian law offices and a courthouse square that gleams with lamplight on rainy nights. Respectable on the surface but steeped in secrets, Linchester is a place where old loyalties run deep and gossip travels fast. Just beyond lies Sandhill village and Kirkley Hall — a grand, isolated manor rising over meadows and a trout stream. Its recent fire casts a long shadow over the town, igniting the mystery at the heart of the story.