SYCAMORE GAP

A sequel to Holy Island (2026) that forces DCI Maxwell Charles Finley-Ryan (known as Ryan) to resurrect the horrors he thought he’d safely buried.

Hiker Colin Hart finds a dead body in the most unexpected place imaginable: stuffed inside Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. Since the remains could be as historic as the wall itself, Prof. Jane Freeman, an archaeologist with National Heritage, joins the investigating team as a consultant. No worries: The victim, identified as medical student Amy Llewellyn, went missing a mere 10 years ago. Nude photos of her found among the possessions of Dr. Keir Edwards vault him to the head of the suspect list. Even though Edwards has been imprisoned for a string of murders climaxing in the killing of Ryan’s sister, Natalie, Amy died before any of the other young women he murdered, and he could have been responsible. On the other hand, the circumstantial and forensic evidence surrounding the brand-new murder of waitress Claire Burns points to another suspect: Colin Hart himself, who turns out to be corresponding with Edwards, who clearly fascinates him. Ryan, still tormented by nightmares about the sister who was killed before his eyes, and galvanized by his new prison interview with the taunting Edwards, struggles to weigh the cases against each of the two men. All the while, surviving members of the Circle, the cult Ryan first encountered in Holy Island, are plotting new acts of violence and terror. And the Circle’s tentacles reach deep into the Northumbria Police Constabulary. There are so many nefarious suspects, in fact, that eliminating any of them, even by death, only deepens the mystery.

Newcomers are well-advised to read Ryan’s debut before deciding whether they want more of the same, as many of them will.