THE ISLES OF SCILLY MYSTERIES #4

The fourth instalment in a gripping and atmospheric crime series set on a small island where there is no escape . . .

‘Gripping, clever and impossible to put down' ERIN KELLY

AN ISLAND ON LOCKDOWN. A KILLER ON THE LOOSE . . .

As the scorching summer sun covers the small Scilly island of St Mary’s, DI Ben Kitto and his team are training for the annual Swimathon. But their morning session comes to a climactic end when they discover a body hanging from Pulpit Rock. The victim has been dressed up in a bridal gown, and Ben quickly realises that a dark and sinister killer is at large on the island.

To prevent the killer from escaping, Ben has no choice but to lock down St Mary’s, yet in doing so he is unwillingly trapping the killer’s next victim. When another woman is attacked, Ben gathers the island’s at-risk residents inside the local hotel for safety, but the killer is already watching and remains one step ahead . . .

Everyone is a suspect. No one is safe.

PRAISE FOR KATE RHODES:

‘Gripping, clever and impossible to put down. I’ve been a Kate Rhodes fan for years and in Ben Kitto she has created a detective who is just as complex and compelling as Kate’s elegant plotting and stunning prose. The claustrophobia and paranoia of the island are so brilliant evoked, I could almost feel the tide encroaching as time ran out to find the killer' ERIN KELLY

‘Absorbing and complex, Hell Bay kept me guessing until the final pages’ RACHEL ABBOTT

'A vividly realised protagonist whose complex and harrowing history rivals the central crime storyline' SOPHIE HANNAH

'Beautifully written and expertly plotted; this is a masterclass' GUARDIAN

'Expertly weaves a sense of place and character into a tense and intriguing story' METRO

'Rhodes does a superb job of balancing a portrayal of a tiny community oppressed by secrets with an uplifting evocation of setting' Jake Kerridge, SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘The whole book tingles with tension. I hope it does for the Scilly Isles what Ann Cleeves did for Shetland' MEL MCGRATH

'I love reading Kate's books in the way I love reading Sophie Hannah – a poet writing crime fiction is a great thing . . . It is at once a locked-room mystery, a story of the returning hero, and an examination of fear and abuse. It has the air of a twenty-first century Agatha Christie' JULIA CROUCH