A derelict, long abandoned cottage has lain undisturbed in the woods for almost half a century.

Known to the local children as Creepy Cottage, its reputation means that even the toughest of the local kids keep away from its boundaries. Years before, as the children’s skipping rhyme recalls, a young boy had gone in through a window and had never come out again.

Now, in late August 1939, things are about to change. Following the most violent summer storm the town has seen for decades, a falling tree causes an end wall to collapse, revealing the skeleton of a young woman.

Creepy Cottage has begun to give up its secrets.

Following a botched initial investigation by an incompetent police force in 1929, young amateur sleuth Amy Rowlings and Inspector Bodkin team up again to investigate, but instead of opening a cold case, they find themselves investigating one that is seemingly frozen in time.

Suspicion falls on the members of the local Playhouse amateur dramatic club and a fallen star of the theatrical world whose career has been mired in scandal.

But will the few clues remaining and the fading memories of witnesses be enough to help Amy and Bodkin to bring a brutal killer to justice?