A Place of Secrets

The elderly Mrs. Massey’s death looks open-and-shut — until poison is found in her system and human remains are found in her basement. As Sergeant Alice Morrow investigates this double murder, decades apart, she unearths the possibility of one or more serial killers quietly at work in this quiet northern town.

Three days after Christmas, the elderly Mrs. Evelyn Massey is found dead in her home, a victim of old age and heart failure. The case looks open-and-shut to Sergeant Alice Morrow, until traces of poison are found in Mrs. Massey’s blood. Then, the remains of a body some sixty years deceased are discovered in her basement.

To solve these murders, committed many decades apart, Morrow recruits the help of former NYPD homicide detective Hugh Mercer, with whom she has developed a professional and personal relationship. Together, they unearth stunning truths about Evelyn Massey’s life, a dead lover from her youth, and other disappearances over the past sixty years. Was a serial killer quietly at work in this Ontario town? Could the villain — or villains — still be among its citizens, hidden in plain sight? And is Alice Morrow’s great secret somehow connected to it all?

This is the second novel in the Northern Gothic Mystery series.

• | Author: Shane Peacock
• | Publisher: Cormorant Books,Canada
• | Publication Date: Oct 25, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
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• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781770867987
• | ISBN-10: 1770867988