Nestled in the heart of the Cotswolds in a former coaching inn, The Crooked Spine Bookshop, seems the perfect refuge from city life. The bookshop boasts crooked oak beams, overflowing shelves, and a walled garden famous for its roses. But when a fragment of a bloodstained jacket is discovered tangled among the thorns, bookseller Rosamund Crale and her sharp-nosed cocker spaniel, Saffron, find themselves drawn into a mystery the village would rather keep buried. As secrets spread through the quiet lanes and tea shop whispers turn dangerous, Rose discovers that in a village built on stories, everyone has something to hide. And someone is willing to kill to keep the final chapter unwritten.