When popular businesswoman Holly Macleod is found strangled in public toilets on the outskirts of Barbury, DI Jeff Lincoln assumes she's fallen victim to a violent Peeping Tom. But as he sifts through the details of her life, he uncovers one mystery after another. A car abandoned at the crime scene belongs to Leo Goldsmith, a family man from London with no apparent connection to Holly or to Barbury – and now he's disappeared.

Lincoln and his team must find out who Holly really was and why she came to this Wiltshire market town to reinvent herself. Was Leo Goldsmith an innocent witness to her murder – or her killer? Lincoln soon starts to suspect that the attack on Holly that dark October night was anything but random – but who would want her dead?

The Price of Silence is the prequel to A Saintly Grave Disturbed and The Shame of Innocence.

The Price of Silence is also available on Kindle

Nikki Copleston grew up in Wiltshire and worked in London for many years before moving to Somerset. Her crime novel, The Shame of Innocence (2016), won a Chill With A Book Award in 2017, and her short stories have been shortlisted in literary competitions. She writes occasional articles on Salisbury for The Fisherton Informer, and is a member of Stellar Scribes, a trio of novelists running creative writing workshops in libraries.

A founder member of the Frome Writers’ Collective, Nikki is also a keen photographer. She takes her inspiration from the landscape of the West Country, although her novels reveal the darker side of life in rural towns and the countryside. She lives in Somerset with her husband and Harvey the cat.

What readers say:

"What a complex plot, but very well thought out! Even though there is a large cast of characters, each was well-defined with their own balance of attractive and repelling sides, something that’s not easy to achieve. Lincoln himself is very sympathetic – a ‘good copper’ who persists – but one who is all too human. I really liked the way the plot unpeeled, suitably messy as real life tends to be. And just when you think you’ve cracked it, the author throws something else in. Recommended.”

"Great quality & a fantastic read.”