Discovering the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, Inspector Vera Stanhope, hoping that she has uncovered a simple natural-causes death, subsequently finds strangle bruises that reveal that the victim was murdered.

Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter to look after the place while they're away. But he is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley. DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene with her detectives Holly and Joe. When they look round the attic of the big house, Vera finds the body of a second man. As...

DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippy neighbours keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation so she has more tolerance for them than most. When one of them goes missing she feels duty-bound to find out what happened. But her path leads her to more than a missing friend ... It's an easy job to track the young woman down to the Writer's House, a country retreat where aspiring authors gather to workshop and work through...

A cold case takes Vera back in time, to a nightclub called The Seagull, and memories of her father. As the past begins to collide dangerously with the present, Vera must confront her memories and dig out the truth.

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before...