DS Karen Hart
2 primary works
Book 1
A perfect village. A perfect crime.
When two young girls disappear from their primary school, the village of Heighington is put on high alert—and not for the first time. Called in to investigate, Detective Karen Hart is sure that parallels with a previous disappearance are anything but coincidental.
DS Hart is still reeling from a case she tried and failed to solve eighteen months ago, when a young woman vanished without a trace. She’s no nearer to the truth of what happened to Amy Fisher, but with two children missing now too, the stakes have never been higher. As she looks to the past for clues, she must confront her own haunting loss, a nightmare she is determined to spare other families.
Hart soon realises that nothing in this close-knit Lincolnshire community is what it seems. Pursuing the investigation with personal vengeance, she finds herself in conflict with her scrupulous new boss, but playing by the rules will have to wait. Because while there’s no shortage of suspects, the missing girls are running out of time…
Book 2
Beneath a quiet village, dark crimes lie buried.
When decomposed human remains are discovered in a suitcase behind a locked door in the home of an elderly man, Detective Karen Hart thinks the facts speak for themselves. That is, until she finds the warning: It’s time to pay for your crime.
The body belongs to a former teacher, Oliver Fox, who vanished from the village thirty years earlier. Hart’s instincts tell her there is something untoward about this rural Lincolnshire community—especially when she uncovers evidence suggesting that, although Fox was a victim, he certainly wasn’t innocent. As the extent of Fox’s crimes becomes apparent and the web of lies continues to unravel, almost nobody in the village is above suspicion.
When there are whispers of child abuse in connection with the case, it’s clear someone is willing to do anything to keep the sinister truth buried. Can Hart find the culprit before more lives are lost?