Police Small Town Mystery

In a small town in rural America, murders of little girls have been going on for a long time. Can the FBI stop him before he kills again?

Brett Buchanan never imagined herself returning to Crestwood, Washington, where her sister was murdered 20 years ago. But when she's offered a detective position with the local police department, she decides to take the job. Between figuring out how to fit in as the squad's first female detective and caring for her grandmother who is showing signs of dementia, Brett doesn't have much time to think about her sister's cold case.

Oxford historian Daniel Kind and his partner Miranda both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy a cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District. But though they hope to live the dream, the past soon catches up with them. Tarn Cottage was once home to Barrie Gilpin, suspected of a savage murder. A young woman's body was found on the Sacrifice Stone, an ancient pagan site up on the fell, but Barrie died before he could be arrested. Daniel has personal reasons for becoming fascinated by the case and for believing in Barrie's innocence.

America’s justice system is severely restricted by bulleted definitions of awful crimes. Bad people have averted guilty pleas when the prosecution can prove all but one measly bullet point in the law. Not anymore. When bodies are recovered from shallow graves in an open field of one small town, local police think they know exactly who’s carrying out these heinous crimes, but their evidence is merely circumstantial. John Wolfe, a military veteran with a disturbing past, is assigned the case and watching the innkeeper's every move. Is he watching the right man?