An ancient legend reborn. A killer recreating dark rituals. And a detective racing to break the circle before it’s complete.

When the body of a teenage girl is found posed in the Merry Maidens stone circle, her face coated in clay and ochre, DS Liam Kilshaw is drawn into a case where near-forgotten fictions bleed into brutal fact.

With echoes of an old folktale of dancers turned to stone, the scene is more about staging than superstition. And when two skeletons are unearthed beneath a nearby stone, Kilshaw realises the past is far from dead and buried.

As he hunts for a missing farmhand linked to the girl, more victims surface, each placed with ritual precision in remote ancient sites. With the noose tightening, Kilshaw must decipher centuries-old secrets to break the circle. Because in this deadly game of ancient rites and cold-blooded murder, the killer is saving the most important sacrifice for last.

A haunting crime thriller where medieval legends collide with modern murder, perfect for fans of LJ Ross and Peter James.

Following his law degree, where he developed an interest in criminal law, Matt Brolly completed his Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University. He is the Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling author of the DI Blackwell novels, the DCI Lambert crime novels, the Lynch and Rose thrillers The Controller and The Railroad, and the standalone thrillers Zero, The Running Girls and The Alliance. Broken Circle is the third in a new series set in Cornwall, featuring DS Kilshaw. Matt lives in London with his wife and their two children. You can find out more about him at www.mattbrolly.com or by following him on X: @MattBrollyUK.