Robert Lancaster
In the deadliest village in England, everyone's a suspect. Everyone's a liar. And someone's getting away with murder.
Evelyn Harrington made one mistake: she thought she could save her old friend from a blackmailer's grip. Now there's a corpse under the ancient oak tree on the village green, poison in the teacups, and half the village wants her gone—or dead.
Marcus Pemberton controlled Old Fossilton with secrets and silence for thirty years. Blackmail. Extortion. Ruin delivered with a gentleman's smile. When he's found murdered beneath the old oak, his killer leaves behind more questions than answers—and a terrifying message: Stop digging, or you're next.
Enter Lionel Danbury, mystery novelist turned real-life detective, who knows a conspiracy when he sees one. Together, he and Evelyn race against time to unmask a killer who's always three steps ahead. But every door they open reveals another lie. Every witness has something to hide. And the deeper they dig, the more dangerous the game becomes.
Because twenty-five years ago, something happened in Old Fossilton. Something involving smuggling, betrayal, and blood money that built a church's fortune. Evelyn knows—she was there, working undercover with a different name and a dangerous mission. She thought those secrets died with the operation.
She was wrong.
Now someone's eliminating anyone who gets too close to the truth. A second body appears. Threatening notes escalate to break-ins. Evidence vanishes. And Evelyn realizes with mounting horror that the gentle vicar, the charitable church treasurer, and the pillars of this picture-perfect village are hiding something truly deadly.
The blackmailer had fifteen victims.
Any one of them could be the killer.
But only one person is cunning enough to frame them all—and walk away free.
In a village where tea parties hide murder plots and everyone's playing a role, can Evelyn expose the mastermind before she becomes the final victim? Or will the killer do what they do best—manipulate, deceive, and bury the truth forever?
A gripping cozy mystery where nothing is cozy about murder, and the only thing more dangerous than the killer... is the truth.