STORM ON THE LEVELS

David Hodges

SYNOPSIS

Multiple murder strikes at the very heart of the desolate Somerset Levels in the midst of the worst snow storm to hit the south west of England in more than a generation. On their way home from a short break, Detective Sergeant Kate and her partner, Hayden, are stranded in a lonely country lane when Kate’s car breaks down.

Forced to take shelter in the isolated Warneford Hall Hotel, which is allegedly haunted by the faceless ghost of Mawgana Keegan, the detectives find themselves stuck there for several days, cut off from all lines of communication with the outside world.

When one of a group of former university graduates staying at the hotel drowns in the hotel’s lake in suspicious circumstances, Kate and Hayden are pitched into a complex murder investigation, which is to tax every ounce of resolve they possess without any prospect of backup or support from their colleagues. But as the body count starts to mount, the detectives find that they are up against a clever, ruthless psychotic who has no intention of quitting until they have satisfied whatever perverse force is driving them.

Nailing the killer presents the intrepid duo with one of the biggest challenges of their careers and as they try to probe the bone fides of the other inmates of the hotel, they become entangled in a web of intrigue and deceit, ‘gifting’ them a host of critical questions. Could the killer be from the group of ex-graduate guests, who seem to be sharing a dark secret they are too frightened to reveal to anyone? On the other hand, might the odd couple running the hotel on behalf of a mysterious owner they claim to have never met be behind the murders? Or is the assassin the rough-sleeper thought to be hiding somewhere in the white-out which has engulfed the surrounding countryside? Furthermore, what has the faceless ghost of Mawgana Keegan, said to prowl the shadowy corridors at night, to do with it all, and what is hidden behind the locked door of the mysterious clocktower?

But as Kate and Hayden delve ever deeper into the secrets buried in the gloom of the old hotel and slowly close in on their quarry, the hunters end up becoming the hunted, and the deadly trap that has already been set for them promises to abruptly end their investigation along with their lives in truly horrific style…