Overview

A tragic double homicide, or a hidden serial killer? Sergeant Alice Morrow is determined to solve a mystery spanning sixty years. When Evelyn Massey is found dead in her home, it seems like an open-and-shut case: Evelyn was one hundred years old — natural causes. But Sergeant Alice Morrow learns that traces of poison were found in Mrs. Massey’s blood. Then the remains of a body some sixty years deceased are discovered in the dead woman’s basement. Two murders, decades apart. Are they connected? In the second book in Shane Peacock’s award-winning Northern Gothic Mystery series, Morrow and former NYPD homicide detective Hugh Mercer unearth stunning truths about Evelyn Massey’s life and learn of other disappearances over the past sixty years. Was a serial killer quietly at work in this Ontario town? Could the murderer still be among its citizens, hidden in plain sight?

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9781770867987

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Like Munro and the late filmmaker David Lynch, Peacock enjoys pulling the curtain back on small-town politesse and exposing the rot behind it.""-- ""The Toronto Star"" ""This novel is spine-tingling, haunting, and will have lovers of gothic mystery begging for more. The characters are raw, interesting, and relatable as the police service navigates new members and the complexity of long-standing ones. At the heart of A Place of Secrets is a sweet sentiment wrapped in silver linings and dipped in darkness, and all as cold as the winter days it takes place over.""--Sarah Butland ""The Miramichi Reader"" ""With A Place of Secrets, Peacock delivers yet another gripping novel steeped in atmosphere, emotion, and moral complexity. His Ontario landscape feels at once familiar and haunted, a place where history seeps into every corner. Through Morrow's sharp and determined perspective, Peacock examines what people will do to protect the truths they cannot face. The result is a compelling and deeply human mystery that lingers long after the final page.""-- ""Open Book""

""This novel is spine-tingling, haunting, and will have lovers of gothic mystery begging for more. The characters are raw, interesting, and relatable as the police service navigates new members and the complexity of long-standing ones. At the heart of A Place of Secrets is a sweet sentiment wrapped in silver linings and dipped in darkness, and all as cold as the winter days it takes place over.""--The Miramichi Reader ""Sarah Butland"" ""With A Place of Secrets, Peacock delivers yet another gripping novel steeped in atmosphere, emotion, and moral complexity. His Ontario landscape feels at once familiar and haunted, a place where history seeps into every corner. Through Morrow's sharp and determined perspective, Peacock examines what people will do to protect the truths they cannot face. The result is a compelling and deeply human mystery that lingers long after the final page.""-- ""Open Book""

""As for the big reveal, Peacock delivers it with a panache that will satisfy even the most veteran mystery buff. As Alice moves closer, literally and figuratively, to realizing who the dunit is, we sense danger before she does. No! Watch out! We want to yell. Doesn't get much better.""--Melanie Jackson ""The Seaboard Review"" ""Cozy mystery meets Scandinavian crime.""--Angela Misri ""CBC Books' The Next Chapter"" ""Like Munro and the late filmmaker David Lynch, Peacock enjoys pulling the curtain back on small-town politesse and exposing the rot behind it.""-- ""The Toronto Star"" ""A Place of Secrets ratchets up the suspense as the case challenges the team's assumptions. They must piece together the puzzle, confront long-held family secrets, and -- yes -- unearth more bodies. Written in tight but evocative prose, Peacock's novel layers character-driven drama over a stark, unsettling whodunit that will keep readers guessing until the end.""-- ""Literary Review of Canada"" ""This novel is spine-tingling, haunting, and will have lovers of gothic mystery begging for more. The characters are raw, interesting, and relatable as the police service navigates new members and the complexity of long-standing ones. At the heart of A Place of Secrets is a sweet sentiment wrapped in silver linings and dipped in darkness, and all as cold as the winter days it takes place over.""--Sarah Butland ""The Miramichi Reader"" ""With A Place of Secrets, Peacock delivers yet another gripping novel steeped in atmosphere, emotion, and moral complexity. His Ontario landscape feels at once familiar and haunted, a place where history seeps into every corner. Through Morrow's sharp and determined perspective, Peacock examines what people will do to protect the truths they cannot face. The result is a compelling and deeply human mystery that lingers long after the final page.""-- ""Open Book""

Author Information

Shane Peacock has been published in twenty languages in eighteen countries. The first book in the Northern Gothic Mystery series, As We Forgive Others, was published in 2024 to great acclaim and won the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada. He has won the Junior Library Guild of America Selection seven times, the Arthur Ellis Award / CWC Award of Excellence three times, and has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. His young adult novels include the Boy Sherlock Holmes series, the Dylan Maples Adventures, The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim trilogy, The Book of Us, and Show. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario, with his wife, journalist Sophie Kneisel.

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