The Devil's Claw

Book excerpt: Fans of Ann Cleeves and Elly Griffiths will enjoy this atmospheric British mystery debut—“a perfect novel for a cold night in a dark winter” (Foreword Reviews). The hunt for a serial killer on the Channel Island of Guernsey leads investigators down a trail of local myths and long-kept secrets rooted in the insular community’s dark past . . . Finding a drowned woman’s body on the beach is the last thing journalist Jennifer Dorey’s fragile psyche needs. She left London for her island home of Guernsey, England, in the aftermath of a traumatic incident that shook her to her core. Now, as a local newspaper reporter, it’s Jennifer’s job to prove the woman’s death...but she uncovers something far bigger and more sinister than she ever could have imagined. Jennifer enlists the help of DCI Michael Gilbert to investigate a pattern of similar deaths over the last fifty years. Though he’s looking forward to a comfortable—and imminent—retirement, Gilbert joins the journalist on a dark trail of island myths and folklore that leads to the door of a Nazi soldier’s illegitimate son. But as Jennifer gets closer to learning the killer’s identity—and his painstaking plans for mayhem—she falls ever deeper into his grasp. Sinister deeds unravel in the darkness in The Devil’s Claw, Lara Dearman’s exhilarating debut novel.