The Nanny Is Dead — Tannis Laidlaw

Amateur sleuth Jodie Hill is ready to settle into a peaceful house-sitting role at the Rogers’ lakefront estate as autumn descends upon stunning Darkwater Lake, living in a winterised small cabin near the big cottage previously occupied by the family’s nanny. But the nanny’s gruesome death shatters any delusions of tranquillity. When Jodie discovers the beloved caregiver’s body brutally splayed out at the foot of a rocky cliff, she swears to the dead girl’s stone-cold corpse that she’ll uncover the truth behind this mysterious tragedy.With the wealthy Rogers clan now forced to remain in Darkwater Lake until Jodie's partner Rigo and the police unravel whether the suspicious case was murder or misconstrued suicide, the walk down the dock feels longer and lonelier for the professor-turned-sleuth each creeping night. Yet as she retraces the nanny's final footsteps, Jodie keeps stumbling across secrets which begin piling up. A ruthless game remains at play in the shadows of the once-serene woods.With bone-chilling autumn storms about to roll in across the midnight-black lake and the Rogers' return to their secure Phoenix property continuously delayed, Jodie is locked in a race not just for justice...but to stay alive herself long enough to expose secrets rooted in deceit. For there are predators who will kill to keep long-buried lies from being exhumed - and delicious new bait has unknowingly set foot upon their treacherous shores...