He came to sell a cottage, not count alibis.
A murder in a village library tips a coastal community off balance. In May 1996, London journalist Noah Yalland returns to South Devon to clear his late mother’s cliff-top cottage, planning to sell and leave.
The Landmark Syndicate’s waterside villas have split neighbours. After their envoy, Frank Cullen, is found bludgeoned, suspicion lands on the locals who confronted him the night before. Librarian Eileen Thorne and Sergeant Scott Langdon see routines overturned, and Noah—who crossed paths with Cullen—becomes more than a bystander.
In a pre-digital mystery traced through parish registers, council minutes, sign-in books and remembered alibis, Noah wants to do right by his father and keep Leo, the new café owner, out of the developers’ crosshairs.
With gossip outrunning facts and the bay’s future at stake, can he uncover the truth before the wrong person pays—or the deal becomes impossible to stop?
Boundaries: fade-to-black intimacy, minimal on-page violence, occasional strong language.
