In an idyllic English town of the near future, the past is not the only thing left unburied.

After learning of his wife’s affair with his best friend and business partner, divorced and unemployed MindTech entrepreneur Dr Harry Coulson arrives in the idyllic English town of Freebourne, looking to start a new life. But any hopes of quietly picking up the pieces of his broken world are shattered when he steps off the train to discover the body of a young woman lying in the snow. It's almost as if she'd been left there for him to find. Harry does everything he can to help. But as a stranger arriving on the night Freebourne witnesses its first murder in over a century, he not only becomes a suspect in the woman's killing but finds himself caught in a deadly game between science, faith, and free will — in a secret far darker and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined.

Salman Shaheen is a British politician, journalist and novelist. He has written for the Guardian, New Statesman, Huffington Post, Byline Times, New Internationalist and Times of India, and frequently comments on politics and economics on TV and radio. His exclusive exposes on corporate tax avoidance have made front-page news in the Observer and have been picked up by the FT and the Telegraph.

Salman launched Grow for the Future, the UK’s first-ever policy to transform wasteland into places for urban kids in deprived areas to grow food and learn about sustainability and biodiversity. The policy, initiated in the London Borough of Hounslow, has been backed by the UK government and championed by Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter OBE. He also partnered with Jamie Oliver to launch the celebrity chef's first-ever food education programme directly targeted at primary schools to tackle childhood obesity.

Passionate about preserving green spaces, Salman helped lead the successful and nationally prominent campaign to save Park Road Allotments – a century-old wildlife haven established to feed wounded soldiers returning from the First World War – from being bulldozed by one of Britain’s richest landowners, the Duke of Northumberland.

Born in Norwich in 1984, Salman graduated with a Double First in Social & Political Sciences from Jesus College, Cambridge, before going on to complete the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. He now lives in Brentford, West London.

Salman is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.