Jo Jones can't seem to catch a break. Trading in city life for the cozy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire should have been a "fresh start.” Instead, she's been driven further into the past than she thought possible --- and not just her own. Then there’s the gossipy town politics Jo must constantly navigate as a neurodivergent transplanted American. And of course, the whole murder business. When prickly town detective James MacAdams discovers a body in the moors with coincidental ties to Jo Jones, they're forced to team up on the case. The clues will lead them into the wealthiest locales of Yorkshire, from sparkling glass hotels to luxury property sites to elite country clubs. But what begins as bizarre murder case quickly plunges them both into the blackmarket world of rare artifacts and antique trading...and a murderer who will do anything to cover it up.

Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger --- and she’s also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo’s mysterious family history.