Shadows Over Piel

When a man's body washes up beneath Piel Castle, it appears at first to be a tragic suicide. But Detective Inspector Harmony Freeman feels a quiet unease settle over her the moment she steps onto the island. Seconded to assist the newly appointed Inspector Redfern, she is expected to support his tidy conclusions, yet the tide, the body's injuries, and the island's three residents tell a different story.

On Piel Island, the tide dictates everything: when people arrive, when they leave, and what the sea chooses to reveal. As Freeman begins to probe, small inconsistencies begin to emerge. Witness statements that shift with each retelling, and signs of activity that have no place on an island this remote. All the fragments of evidence slowly come together and uncover unusual activity inside The Ship Inn. Freeman's suspicions deepen that something else is happening here, something involving people who never appear in any official records and have come from far away shores. She begins to suspect a secret network within the ferrymen's tightly knit group. When an Eritrean family turn up at Barrow Police station, evidence begins to slip into place. Who are they and why are they here?

Cut off by rising water, wary locals, and a superior who doubts her instincts Freeman must navigate an investigation where every truth is shaped by fear, loyalty, or survival. On Piel Island, even the smallest lie carries weight, and the sea has a habit of hiding more than it reveals.

Set against the stark beauty of Morecambe Bay, Shadows Over Piel is a bleak, atmospheric crime novel about isolation, suspicion, and the quiet dangers that thrive in forgotten places. Some shadows do not fade quietly, and some truths refuse to stay buried.