<p><strong>Winner of Best Crime Fiction at the 2024 National Indie Excellence Awards</strong></p><p><strong>Finalist for the 2024 Feathered Quill Award for Best Mystery Thriller</strong></p><p>Debby Morris, mother of two, goes to a Christmas party at the historic Hollyhock Manor in Marlow, and never comes home.</p><p>Her phone, handbag and Santa's elf hat are found in a park near the River Thames. The police issue a nationwide search, but Debby is not found.</p><p><strong>Planned disappearance or something more sinister?</strong></p><p>Then Debby's body, still in her elf costume, is discovered five miles downstream from where she disappeared.</p><p>But the circumstances around Debby's death are murkier than the Thames in which she was found.</p><p>Detective Rob Miller is pulled from compassionate leave and put in charge. He's still reeling from his last botched case, and now all eyes are on him - waiting to see if he'll crack.</p><p>As if saving his career isn't enough, Rob and his team are now in a race against time to bring an ingenious killer to justice.</p>