On a November day in 1956, DI Stratton is at a the scene of a brutal stabbing. The murdered man is a solitary individual, obsessed with a mysterious religious organisation...
On a dank November day in the late 50s DI Ted Stratton is called to a murder scene in Soho.
The victim is Jeremy Lloyd, a loner with a taste for religion and spirituality.
Stratton's enquiries lead him to his home turf of Suffolk, where a Mr Roth has set up a spiritual foundation. There, Stratton meets Michael, a boy who has been proclaimed as the next incarnation in a long line of spiritual leaders. The boy's mother, the same woman whose photograph was cherished by Lloyd, has disappeared.
When a woman's body is found in woods nearby, Stratton initially assumes he has found her, but the reality turns out to be far more terrifying.
Laura Wilson's acclaimed and award-winning crime novels have won her many fans. Her novel Stratton's War won the Ellis Peters Award, while The Lover and A Thousand Lies were both shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Laura is the Guardian's crime reviewer. She lives in Islington, London.