“By far the best book I have read this year…  Sarah Rayne always has me on the edge of my seat…” Eurocrime

When the village of Priors Bramley was closed off for chemical-weapons testing during the Cold War, a long history of dark secrets was also sealed up.

Now, more than fifty years later, the ghost village has been declared safe again.  And Ella Haywood, who played in Priors Bramley as a child, realises that a terrible event from her own past is forcing its way to the surface – a secret that she and her friends vowed must never be known.

But Priors Bramley and the old Cadence Manor at the heart of its silent desolation have their own dark secrets…  Secrets that stretch back to the early years of the twentieth century.

As the mystery surrounding the now derelict manor house draws increasing local interest, Ella fears she will have to resort to ever more drastic measures if she is to make sure that no one discovers what really happened in the past..

But she has not bargained for the deeper past that is waking…