MEET YOUR NEW FAVOURITE DETECTIVE. DI JOANNA PIERCY IS AN OUTSIDER IN A REMOTE STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS TOWN.

As fire rages across the Staffordshire moors, firefighters uncover a gruesome discovery beneath the scorched earth.

Two bodies lie entwined. Dressed in white, bound together with red cord, their lips touching as though in a final kiss.

The victims are dubbed The Lovers. But Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy quickly realises this is no crime of passion.

A mysterious painted stone buried with the bodies leads Joanna and Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski to Renshaw Hall, an isolated manor house once home to a reclusive spiritual community. Its residents vanished years ago — but someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep what happened there hidden.

As Joanna follows the evidence, she discovers that the truth behind The Lovers' deaths is far more sinister than their final embrace suggests.

DARK SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT DETECTIVE PIERCY IN THIS QUIET MOORLANDS TOWN.

An accomplished police procedural with a stunningly realized heroine, perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths, Joy Ellis, L.J. Ross, Lynda La Plante, Angela Marsons, Jane Adams and Helen H. Durrant.