M. Cooke

Ida Pederson was an executive at ‘Nyberg Shoreline’ when she was sent to the small Northern Irish village of Port Kriel to diffuse tensions between the company and the local community. When an unexploded bomb was identified on the seabed near Nyberg’s windfarm, Ida sent a local crew of eight men to investigate. That night, only two men returned home, barely alive and unable to speak of what had happened out at sea.

When Sasha’s son Simon vanishes, she teams up with Beth, a former FBI agent, to find him. Their investigation leads them to Tyler, a mysterious newcomer whose guarded behavior only deepens their suspicions. As they uncover a chilling pattern of boys aged 7 to 9 disappearing every December within a 100-mile radius, they also unravel the town’s tangled web of secrets and deception. In this tight-knit community, friends and neighbors harbor hidden motives and dark pasts, where trust becomes a luxury Sasha can't afford.

It was four o'clock in the morning. A young woman pushed through the hospital doors. Staff would later say they thought the woman was a new mother, returning to her child - and in a way, she was. She walked into the nursery, where a baby girl lay sleeping. The infant didn't wake when the woman placed her gently in the shopping bag she had brought with her. There is CCTV footage of what happened next, and most Australians would have seen it, either on the internet or the news.