DI Jack McNaughton starts his day and finds a padded envelope on his desk: inside, a single smooth pebble and no note. This is the third of several similar packages that have been posted to him.

Hours later, an unidentified man is found dead at the Ring of Brodgar. He has no ID, the labels cut from his clothes, and no one recognises him. Cause of death is suspected to be exposure, but the post-mortem reveals that he was poisoned.

Then Jack’s family life is suddenly thrown into chaos – he learns that his father wasn’t the man everyone thought – and Jack has to come to terms with the fact that his childhood was built on a lie.

As the envelopes continue to arrive, it becomes clear that the objects are not trophies but keys to a series of crimes: A pebble, a cracked marble, a faded ferry ticket stained with blood, a rusty key and a torn rag doll.

One of these clues could lead Jack to the killer. This is a puzzle that he was meant to solve. But as his own family crumbles around him, he starts to question if he has what it takes protect the people who need him most.

‘A phenomenal storyteller’ Simon McCleave

Death at the Stone Circle is the second book in the new Lost Orkney series of crime thrillers from the Amazon #1 multi-million selling crime writer, J M Dalgliesh, the author of the Hidden Norfolk and Misty Isle books.

© J M Dalgliesh 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027