A calculated killer. A town under threat. An unfinished pattern…

Professor Carla James is an archaeologist with an interest in more than just bones and stones. She wants to understand the emotions behind the sites she investigates.

Desperate for a change of scene following the death of her husband, Carla takes a job at Jericho, an elite New England college. On her first day, Carla is asked to represent the department at an unusual murder site. Although she initially believes there is nothing interesting about the debris that surrounds the body, there is more to the site than meets the eye.

This victim is just the latest in a series of unsolved deaths in Jericho. Although the deaths appear unlinked, Carla is convinced: there is a methodical and calculated killer is operating under the cover of darkness. Can she uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim?

A dead child. A missing student. A darkness at the heart of Jericho College.

When the body of a baby is found wrapped in a swan’s wing deep in the woods, archaeology professor and expert consultant Carla James is brought in to assist on the case. The unusual burial must signify something, but what exactly is unclear.

Meanwhile, a student from Jericho College has gone missing. Police say she left of her own accord, but this doesn’t seem right to Carla. The young woman didn’t tell anyone she was leaving. No one has heard from her since. And she’s not the first student to disappear.

As Carla delves further into both cases, she finds a rotten history beneath both the college’s and the town’s facade, perpetuated by lies and cover-ups. How deep does the corruption go?

A gripping and unsettling crime thriller about privilege and the dark underbelly of institutions we so easily trust.