The Cropped Frame

Photographer Naomi Fletcher is certain her former fiancé is watching her. Anonymous photographs keep appearing: ordinary moments, tightly framed, each one proof that someone has been close enough to see her without being seen. Private investigator Chantelle Smith is hired to establish whether Aaron Marsh is behind them. Then one photograph arrives while Chantelle is watching Aaron somewhere else. When Naomi is later found dead inside Fletcher Studio, the stalking case becomes something far more dangerous. The photographs are still the key, but only if Chantelle can separate what they actually show from the story everyone has built around them. Set in Stockport and South Manchester, this contemporary British private-investigator mystery explores friendship, control, guilt, and the dangerous gap between a true image and the whole truth.