‘Daffodils freeze and shrubs cry in Stormhaven. They call it ‘The Beast from the East’ and the temperature’s unholy; it crucifies all with cruel nails of ice; a Siberian chill piercing their bones. And there will be a further killing tonight – human, not plant; boy, not man.’

So begins another case for Abbot Peter and D.I. Tamsin Shah, with the discovery of a young man’s body at the seaside beauty spot of Splash Point. He drowns beneath a cold, uncaring moon; and as P.C. Banville observes, it proves a ‘hungry death’, not be sated by one unfortunate corpse. There must, and will, be more.

The investigation will lead the Abbot and Shah into deep but different danger. And it’s not just the killer they need worry about.

Pray for the coming of spring.

‘To a long list of much-loved detective pairings, which includes Holmes and Watson, Poirot and Hastings, and Morse and Lewis, we must now add Abbot Peter and Tamsin Shah.’
~ Church Times

‘Abbot Peter is a true original.’
~ Daily Mail

‘Highly original ... very different from most detective stories.’
~ Clerical Detectives

‘Parke evokes the creepiness of the setting marvellously. He has a stunning ear for the way people actually speak.’
~ Fiona Hook, Church Times

Simon Parke has been a scriptwriter for Spitting Image, a Sony award-winning radio writer and a priest in the Church of England. He is now CEO of The Mind Clinic and author of ‘The Secret Testament of Julian’ and the Abbot Peter murder mysteries, set in Seaford on the Sussex coast where Simon now lives with Shellie, seagulls and his running shoes.