Polish-born DS Dania Gorska is called upon to investigate a seemingly straightforward case of an RTA - a car has crashed into a tree, having first hit a deer on an icy road. But a witness has come forward to say he saw someone fleeing the scene and then the autopsy reveals vicious marks on the head of the dead man. Suddenly Dania is looking at murder.

The dead man, Eddie Sangster, has had an intriguing past - the youngest of three brothers, he inherited the family estate after the oldest committed suicide and the other simply disappeared. But decades on it would seem someone is out for vengeance as murder stones - carved headstones attesting to the brutal murders of both brothers - start to appear on the grounds of the estate.

Clearly the key to the puzzle of the murder stones lies at Sangster Hall, where a calamitous incident in the past is now shaping the present, and it is up to Dania to discover the murderous secret of the Sangster family.

Praise for Hania Allen

'Nicely nasty in all the right places . . . The story rattles along until bringing the curtain down with an unnerving twist' Craig Robertson

'A fresh new find for crime fans ... the plot is intriguing, the characters are well drawn, and the end comes with an unnerving twist. Extremely readable' Sunday Post

'Captivating characters and an intriguing plot. A great new find for crime fans' Lin Anderson

'Pitch-perfect . . . a witty, tense crime novel written in a highly readable style' Russel D McLean