The Dead Come to Stay

An amateur autistic sleuth. A wry English detective. A murder case that thrusts them both into the wealthy, illicit world of the rare antiques trade…

Jo Jones can't seem to catch a break. Trading in city life for the cozy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire to take over her family estate should have been a chance for a “fresh start.” Instead, she's been driven further into the past than she thought possible—and not just her own. The estate property is littered with traces of ancestors that Jo never knew existed, including the mysterious woman in a half-destroyed painting—and hints about Jo's late uncle, who may hold the key to her cryptic family history. Then there’s the gossipy town politics Jo must constantly navigate as a neurodivergent transplanted American… And of course, the whole murder business.

When prickly town detective James MacAdams discovers a body in the moors with coincidental ties to Jo Jones, they're forced to team up on the case. The clues will lead them into the wealthiest locales of Yorkshire, from sparkling glass hotels to luxury property sites to elite country clubs. But below the glittering surfaces, Jo and MacAdams discover darker schemes brewing. Local teens, many of them international refugees, are disappearing left and right, and each case is somehow linked to a shady architectural firm—which also happened to employ the dead man from the moor-side ditch.

What begins as a bizarre murder case quickly plunges them both into the blackmarket world of rare artifacts and antique trading…and a murderer who will do anything to cover it up.