The Distant Dead

Summary

Cleaner-turned-detective Stella Darnell connects a murder in Tewkesbury Abbey to a decades-old mystery in wartime London. From the number 1 bestselling author of The Detective's Daughter.


London, 1940

A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. It looks like she's another tragic casualty of the Blitz, until police pathologist Aleck Northcote proves she was strangled and placed at the scene. But Northcote himself has something to hide. And when his past catches up with him, he too is murdered.


Tewkesbury, 2020

Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man has been fatally stabbed. He is Roddy March, an investigative journalist for a podcast series uncovering miscarriages of justice. He was looking into the murder of police pathologist Dr Aleck Northcote – and was certain he had uncovered Northcote's real killer.

Stella Darnell used to run a detective agency alongside her cleaning business. She's moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it – but Roddy died in her arms and, Stella is someone impelled to root out evil when she finds it. Now she is determined to hunt down Roddy's killer – but then she finds another body...

Published by: Head of Zeus
Published: 13 May 2021
ISBN: B08D3X7TYM

Photographs I took while writing The Distant Dead.

Reviews

Lesley Thomson can make your flesh creep at will. Her sense of place, during the Blitz or in the present, is remarkable. This is her best novel to date.  

Mark SandersonMark SandersonThe Times

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