Patricia Hall's acclaimed novels feature reporter Laura Ackroyd and DCI Michael Thackeray, set against the backdrop of West Yorkshire, the region where the author grew up. Through her characters, she explores complex relationships and the darker facets of human nature. Hall brings a keen insight and a polished style to the crime genre, crafting compelling narratives that resonate with readers.
London, 1964. A young girl falls to her death from the top-floor window of a club in Soho. Detective Sergeant Harry Barnard must decide: tragic accident, or murder? Meanwhile, Kate O'Donnell's ex's girlfriend left Liverpool for London but is missing: where is she? Harry and Kate are drawn into Soho's dark underbelly in their search for answers.
When Diana Lewis and her husband, Simon, go to view a small chateau on an estate in France, Diana feels she has come home. The renovated chateau is charming and the other residents are pleasant and friendly. The chateau, however, has a tragic WWII history and the story of the chateau's wartime owner, Philippe de Lusignac, touches Diana's heart. After buying the chateau, she discovers evidence of a long-hidden secret which leads her to the truth of those dreadful events - a murder and a murderer. Gradually, Diana learns of the loves, betrayals, lies and secrets that are interwoven among the residents of the chateau's gated community, and their links to the estate's terrible history. Past and present, changing the future - even her own, when Simon wants to drag everything into the daylight. What is left, when all of the truths come out?