Elements of Death

A DI Tobias Stone Lake District Crime Thriller

Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Peter Robinson, and Elly Griffiths

A body preserved in a burning barn using Iron Age bog burial techniques. A second victim smoke-cured inside a hollow oak. And a killer recreating a controversial art exhibition from twenty years ago—one victim at a time.

When DI Tobias Stone is called to a barn fire near Coniston Water, he discovers something the flames couldn't destroy: the preserved body of environmental activist Miles Cartwright, with a copper-bound shepherd's crook placed beside him. The preservation method—ancient bog burial—matches one element from "Kept Cumbria," a scandalous art exhibition that documented traditional preservation techniques using earth, air, water, and fire.

The second victim confirms the pattern. Climate scientist Professor Julian Barrett is next—and Stone has days, not weeks, to find him before the preservation process is complete.

The investigation leads to Marion Hawthorne, an artist who disappeared twenty years ago after the exhibition. She's been living in abandoned copper mine tunnels, creating an underground gallery of "preserved" victims. Her apprentice, Olivia Blackwell, was groomed to help complete the macabre artwork. Together, they view murder not as crime, but as preservation of tradition.

With DS Amy Hopwood and Dr. Helen Lawson, Stone races through Coniston's mine network to stop the final "exhibition"—before artistic obsession claims more lives. In the Lake District, cultural memory runs deep. But some traditions deserve to die.