Jo Mason

Miles from the nearest town, hidden deep in the English countryside, Skellin Cottage promises peace, privacy - and secrecy. Until its latest tenant is found brutally murdered. Months later, with the case stalled and rumours festering, the cottage's owner, Lord Chesleford, takes matters into his own hands. He hires Jo Mason, a former police officer turned private investigator, to uncover the truth the police failed to find. But Jo quickly realises this is no ordinary cold case. The victim was a woman of contradictions: desperate to avoid attention, yet quietly drawing it from several men; fleeing her past, while unknowingly leaving a trail of clues behind her. She lived two very different lives - and someone was determined to make sure neither survived. As Jo digs deeper into the tight-knit rural community, long-buried secrets begin to surface. Loyalties fracture. Motives multiply. And it becomes terrifyingly clear that the truth doesn't just explain one death - it may point to another.

When a teenage girl suddenly appears at the Stone family home, insisting she is the long-lost Rachel, private investigator Jo Mason is called in to separate miracle from manipulation. The Stones want answers - but they also want the truth kept quiet. As Jo digs deeper, cracks begin to show. Old grief doesn't fade easily, and neither do secrets. Every member of the wealthy, reclusive family seems to be hiding something - and some of them are desperate for the past to stay buried. Then there's the crying baby heard in the dead of night, echoing through the grounds like a ghostly reminder of what was lost. Is Rachel really who she says she is? If not, where is the real Rachel Stone - and what happened to her fifteen years ago? As Jo races to uncover the truth, she realizes that someone is willing to go to deadly lengths to protect the lies at the heart of the Stone family. Because some families don't just hide secrets. They're built on them.