The Singing Tree

Three young girls are dead, their bodies discovered near an isolated oak tree known locally as the Singing Tree, where village folklore claims the wind carries the voices of the hanged. With no clear connection between the victims and no evidence of assault, the case soon overwhelms the local police, forcing Detective Inspector Mitchell Cannard out of the uneasy semi-retirement many of his colleagues hoped he would finally accept. Still haunted by the events of Unthank Road and the loss of his closest colleague, Cannard arrives in Blackthorn carrying more ghosts than luggage. What begins as a baffling murder investigation slowly unfolds into something stranger and far more tragic: hidden friendships, secret meetings beneath the tree, a missing videotape, cryptic messages scrawled on pub business cards, and the lingering fear that someone in the village knows far more than they admit. As Cannard follows the fragile threads connecting the girls, he discovers that the truth has been preserved not by police work alone, but by the children themselves — through a diary, a camcorder, and the innocent mistakes of youth. Dark, atmospheric and deeply human, The Singing Tree is a haunting sequel to Unthank Road and a crime novel about memory, grief, justice, and the dangerous gap between what can be known and what can be proved. Beneath the branches of the Singing Tree, old folklore whispers through the leaves — but the true horror waiting there is entirely human.