Echoes of Ash

A city scarred by fire. A detective haunted by secrets. A truth someone will kill to bury.

When a tenement block erupts in flames on Langdon Rise, six lives are lost—including a disgraced MP under investigation for corruption. To DCI Naomi Cresswell, the blaze is anything but random. The survivors are terrified. The evidence is vanishing. And scrawled into a soot-stained wall is a symbol Naomi thought she’d left behind in childhood nightmares.

As she digs deeper into the ashes, whispers of a rogue police unit—the Grey Watchmen—begin to surface. Disbanded. Denied. Buried. But not forgotten. With the city’s redevelopment masking something far more sinister, Naomi must confront ghosts from her past, challenge loyalties within her own force, and unravel a legacy of power, silence, and fire.

But the deeper she goes, the more dangerous it becomes—for herself, for her daughter, and for anyone who dares speak the truth.

Dark, gripping, and disturbingly timely, Echoes of Ash is a blistering British crime thriller where justice burns slow—and secrets burn everything. Perfect for fans of Val McDermid, Sarah Hilary, and Line of Duty.

©2025 Gary Chaffey (P)2025 Gary Chaffey