It's nearly May Day and deep in the Dark Peak lies the village of Withens. Not a tranquil place but one troubled by theft, vandalism, strange disappearances and now murder. A young man is killed – battered to death and left high on the desolate moors for the crows to find.

Ben Cooper, part of the investigating team, meets an impenetrable wall of silence from the man's relatives who form Withens' oldest family. The Oxleys are descendants of the first workers who tunnelled beneath the Peak. They stick to their own area, pass on secret knowledge through the generations, and guard their traditions from outsiders.

Detective Diane Fry is in Withens on other business – looking into the disappearance of Emma Renshaw. The student vanished into thin air two years ago, but her parents are convinced she is still alive and act accordingly…which doesn't help Fry in her efforts to re-open the case following an ominous discovery in remote countryside.

But there are other secrets in Withens and more violence to come…The past is stretching its shadow over the present, not just for the inhabitants of Withens but for Cooper and Fry as well.

About the Author

Born in Lancashire, Stephen Booth has been a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years. He has worked as a rugby reporter, a night shift sub-editor on the 'Scottish Daily Express' and Production Editor of the 'Farming Guardian' magazine, in addition to spells on local newspapers in the North of England. Stephen lives in a Georgian dower house in Nottinghamshire with his wife, three cats and goats. His interests include folklore, the Internet and walking in the Peak District.

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