The crashing wave catches the early morning light, sparkling like diamonds across the beach. It cocoons the girl’s body resting on the rocks, her knees tucked under her. As the water reaches it, the girl’s dark hair rises in tendrils to caress her face, her eyelashes speckled with sand. She’d look like a mermaid from a story… if not for the bruises around her fragile throat.

When the body of a young woman is found by the coast in Land’s End, Cornwall, Detective Lauren Pengelly and her deputy Matt Price are first on the scene. Sophie Bethany Yates was well-known around the docks – a pretty girl from up the coast, always dreaming of something more. As locals jostle the barricades for a better look, whispers go round that Sophie’s boyfriend Samuel was more than capable of murder.

But Lauren isn’t ready to close the case, even after Samuel can’t give a reliable alibi for the night Sophie died. Something about the crime scene feels off – a hunch confirmed when they find a tiny slip of paper hidden inside Sophie’s mouth, reading “Men must work and women must weep”. It’s a break in the case, but a confusing one. What does the cryptic message mean, and how come Lauren feels like she’s heard it before?

But then another young woman is found on the sand, a curl of paper between her lips. Lauren knows they’re running out of time to catch the killer. As she begins to untangle the dark truth around what’s happening to these girls, she discovers a darker side to the scenic town – and to Sophie herself, who wasn’t all she seemed. Hiding in plain sight is a twisted killer, whose desperate plans mean nobody is safe for long… but can Lauren piece together the truth before they find her first?

An unputdownable murder mystery from a bestselling author, perfect for fans of LJ Ross, Louise Penny and Joy Ellis.