Too Close to the Cold Case

A seventeen-year-old girl vanishes from a woodland path in Hartswick within hours of DI Harrison Black’s transfer from the Met, ending any hope of a quieter life after the loss of his husband.

Thirteen years earlier, Robyn Whitton disappeared from that same ground and was never found, and her brother Jake has never stopped looking.

A roofer and drummer with a record, a temper, and no trust in the police who failed Robyn and then failed him, Jake forces himself into the investigation anyway.

Harrison knows he should keep his distance from a man tied to the case, yet Jake’s loyalty gets under his skin, and Jake, able to want a man but uneasy about wanting one to stay, is just as shaken by Harrison’s grief and quiet authority.

As the new disappearance reopens the cold case, the line between the job and a forbidden pull thins, and someone in town will go to any length to keep thirteen years of secrets buried.