The Taken — Alice Clark-Platts

A tense and powerful police procedural set in the city of Durham where a murdered preacher may be more monstrous than his own killer.

There's the lost.
There's the missing.
And there's the taken.

She asked me once if we had any secrets, and I shook my head.
'No secrets between us,' she said.
'No,' I answered. 'Never ever.'

In a Durham hotel at dawn, celebrated preacher Tristan Snow is murdered as he prays. None of the other guests - not even his daughter, his wife, or her sister - saw or heard anything.

But then again, they all had a motive for murder.

Detective Inspector Erica Martin is confronted by secrets and lies, lost in a case where nothing is what it seems.

With no answers, DI Martin is consumed by questions: Is anyone in this family innocent? When the victim might have been a monster - is there such a thing as justice? And does anyone deserve to die?

Praise for Alice Clark-Platts:

'Had me on the edge of my sun lounger. Excellent plotting and a genuinely unguessable resolution to the mystery'
Sophie Hannah

'Grabbed me from the first page and wouldn't let go. A compelling read, beautifully written ... A tense, captivating tale, brilliantly told'
Rachel Abbott

'A gripping, highly charged thriller'
Ralph Fiennes

'A brilliantly plotted and utterly gripping thriller'
Emma Kavanagh

'Superb ... A very assured page-turning storm I read in one sitting'
Stav Sherez

'Intriguing and sinister with masterful plotting and tension'
Mel Sherratt