Catriona McPherson

"On the rain-drenched, wave-lashed, wind-battered Banffshire coast, tiny fishing villages perch on ledges that would make a seagull think twice, and crumbly mansions cling to crumblier cliff tops while, out in the bay, the herring drifters brave the storms to catch their silver darlings. It's nowhere for a child of gentle Northamptonshire to spend Christmas. But when odd things start to turn up in barrels of fish--with a strong whiff of murder most...

As the pandemic hits the residents of The Last Ditch Motel put Operation Cocker into action: create a safe community with a select few offered rooms as a safe haven. When ambiguous, threatening signs appear then a gruesome discovery is made, their attempt to form a safe space fails. But is it an outsider responsible, or someone inside?

Gloria, neighbor to a shuttered alternative school, investigates the suicide that closed the school when the dead begin speaking to her and claiming the death was murder.