GALLOWS DROP – MARI HANNAH

Gallows Drop is Maria Hannah s sixth gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels. At dawn on a lonely stretch of road, a body is found hanging from an ancient gallows the morning after a country show. Hours earlier, DCI Kate Daniels had seen the victim alive. With her leave period imminent, she s forced to step aside when DCI James Atkins is called in to investigate. There s bad blood between them. When Kate discovers that Atkins daughter was an eyewitness to a fight involving the victim, the two detectives lock horns and he s bumped off the case. It s the trigger for a vicious attack on Kate, exposing a secret she s kept hidden for years and unearthing an even darker one. Shaken but undeterred, Kate sets out to solve a case that has shocked a close-knit village community. As suspects emerge, she uncovers a curious historical connection with a hangman, a culture of systematic bullying, a web of deceit and a deep-seated psychosis, any one of which could be motive for murder.