Getting blood from these stones will be all too easy.

In the middle of one of Norfolk’s most brutal winters, a frozen body is discovered on the legendary Stone of Lyng. With Robert Kett out of action, the case falls to DC Kate Savage and DI Pete Porter, and it quickly becomes clear to them that the young man wasn’t just killed—he was sacrificed.

And he isn’t alone.

Within a week, another dead man is found on one of Norfolk’s ancient stones with the same unthinkable mutilations. Somebody is acting out a ritual, and if Savage and Porter can’t stop them then many more people will die.

Because if the stories of the stones are to be believed, the Hateful Thing is coming—a killer whose thirst for murder and mayhem knows no bounds.

The sixth book in the DCI Kett series presents Savage and Porter as you’ve never seen them before, in one of the most brutal cases they have ever faced—a case so horrific that not even Kett can escape it.

Relentless action, compulsive mystery, and dark humor abound in the internationally bestselling series that Thrilling Fiction calls "Heart-stoppingly gripping!" from the million-selling author that James Patterson described as "fresh and ferocious!"

Alex Smith wrote his first book when he was six. It wasn’t particularly good, but it did have some supernatural monsters in it. His latest books, the DCI Robert Kett thrillers, have monsters in them too, although these monsters are very human, and all the more terrifying for it. In between, he has published 13 other novels for children and teenagers under his full name, Alexander Gordon Smith—including the number one best-selling series Escape from Furnace, which is loved by millions of listeners worldwide and which is soon to become a motion picture. He lives in Norwich with his wife and three young daughters.