"Intrepid investigative journalist Shona Sandison, gone freelance following the tragic events of The Goldenacre, is attending the wedding of her closest friend and former colleague, Vivienne. But the night before the wedding, Vivienne's reclusive old school friend, Dan, throws himself off a roof. Shona is the only witness to the suicide--and so the only person who saw the occult tattoos covering Dan's body, and heard the unsettling, mystical phrases he was uttering. Shona sets off on a conflicted quest to find out why Dan killed himself, the meaning of the strange messages, and what happened to Vivienne's missing brother twenty years prior. Despite knowing that investigating Viv's family will mean she could lose her friend forever, Shona travels to a small, forgotten town in the north of England to investigate a small group of classmates who have held a dark secret for decades."--