Persimmon `Simmy' Brown is reminded that life in the Lake District is far from relaxing when her fiance Chris discovers the body of his friend brutally strangled in Grasmere. As old grudges against the dead man are revealed, and with Chris's increasingly odd behaviour, Simmy begins to wonder if he is more involved in the murder than he is saying.

When the Natural History Museum hires Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton to investigate the destruction of a fossilised dinosaur skeleton, they are slightly reluctant- vandalism is not their speciality. But then an attendant in the dinosaur room is found murdered.

April 1933. To the costermongers of Covent Garden Eddie Pettit was a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. When Eddie is killed in a violent accident, the grieving costers are deeply skeptical about the cause of his death. Who would want to kill Eddie, and why?

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hubbard has another target in his murderous sights.

Winter has arrived in Windermere, and has bought the death of Frances Henderson, the best friend of Simmy Brown's mother. Having known the Henderson family all of her life, Simmy struggles to cope with the loss. When Frances's husband is violently murdered in his home, Simmy must accept that the family she was once close to holds some dark secrets.

Twenty years after her brother Callum mysteriously vanished, Orla Payne is still haunted by his disappearance. In spite of DCI Hannah Scarlett's doubt that there is anything to be done on such a long-dead case, when Orla is found dead, she discovers that investigating the past can throw up some very dangerous truths indeed.

Book 20 in the bestselling Victorian mystery series.

Despite the catastrophic outcomes of her previous house-sitting commissions, Thea Osborne, accompanied by her trusty spaniel, Hepzie, is truly convinced nothing can go wrong on her next assignment in the charming village of Blockley. The Montgomerys have asked her to look after their house while they take a much needed holiday.