"It's the hottest summer on record. Norfolk is parched. One steaming night an old thatched barn at Wild Thyme Farm is torched. The battle to put out the blaze rages.
Detective Sara is on the scene when there's a horrifying discovery: there's a body in the embers.
Sara and her team have been investigating a series of fires breaking out all over the county—but this is the first body.
Accident or murder?
Suspicion soon falls on struggling farm owner Jean Simpson and her daughter, Faye. Mother and daughter had a searing row the day before the barn went up—and now Faye's husband is missing.
At the same time Sara's personal and professional life are reaching boiling point. Her boss wants her to go for promotion. Her boyfriend wants to settle down.
Can Sara solve this case and keep everyone happy—or will it all go up in smoke?"
"It's a stormy December morning when seal-watchers find the body on the beach at Winterton-on-Sea. His clothes have been torn to shreds on the rocks. The bright-orange life jacket didn't save him in the end.
Detective Sara Hirst races to the scene. The washed-up body turns out to be a deckhand who got swept overboard in a storm.
It looks like a tragic accident.
Until another body is found on a pleasure boat drifting out at sea. There are bullet holes in the boat's hull.
This was definitely murder.
But Sara will soon have more to worry about than two dead bodies. Someone from her past is back . . .
There are dark dealings going on in this quiet stretch of Norfolk coast. Detective Sara Hirst must catch a killer before anyone else turns up dead."
"Detective Sara Hirst has moved from London to Norfolk Police's Serious Crimes Unit.
Carnival week in Cromer. It's been an easy-going summer for the Norfolk Police's Serious Crimes Unit—until this morning.
The body of Daisy Shaw, the Carnival Queen, is discovered in a back alley, stretched out on the cobbles. Her long blonde hair lies matted and disheveled around her head, her fingers clutch a sparkly plastic tiara.
Suspicion falls on the carnival crew, especially when it turns out that one of them is Daisy's boyfriend.
The atmosphere in Cromer soon grows nasty. The town turns against the outsiders. The roads are closed. The town descends into chaos. And the murder detectives are right in the thick of it, trying to piece together what happened to Daisy.
The close-knit carnival community is all too used to prejudice and none too keen on helping the police.
Meanwhile, both Sara's mother and boyfriend have bombshells to drop. Can Sara solve the case before anyone else gets hurt?"
"SARA FACES HER TOUGHEST AND MOST BIZARRE CASE YET.
The first body is found forced inside a huge terracotta urn on the lawn of a country manor in a remote corner of North Norfolk.
A few days later, a young woman is found, tied to a golden chair with her throat slashed.
At both crime scenes, the killer leaves a bizarre calling card.
The victims were part of a group of friends at university back in the day. Two of them are dead. Two are still alive—but for how much longer?
The team's new DCI, Hayley Hudson, is convinced the prime suspect is Dom Wilkins, one of the victims' old flames.
But Detective Sara thinks she's missing something obvious. Can she stop a serial killer before they strike again?"
"Detective Sara Hirst has moved from London to Norfolk Police's Serious Crimes Unit. Under the brooding skies of North Norfolk, Sara faces her toughest case yet and finds that great beauty sometimes conceals great violence.
Too many secrets. Too much pain. Too many leads.
Dawn breaks as a dog-walker finds a dead body, half-naked and wrapped tightly in an old groundsheet.
Sara is first on the scene.
Who is the victim? And who will be next?
Sara must take on some of Britain's most wanted criminals if she's to find out the truth.
Contains mature themes."
"Set under the brooding skies of North Norfolk. Meet Sara Hirst as she searches for her lost father and finds that great beauty sometimes conceals great violence.
Detective Sara Hirst has moved from London to Norfolk Police's Serious Crimes Unit. She wants to know the truth about her father, who has connections to the area. Her mother won't tell her the real story.
A new job. A new place. Same old problems.
Sara's first call-out is to a decomposing body discovered in a ditch on a local farm. How does the murder relate to a recent spate of thefts? Who wanted the victim dead?
Then the case grows very personal . . .
Contains mature themes."
