Lost Ground by K. Sterling

“There’s lots of lost souls up there. That ground’s been cursed by massacres and hangings and those sad souls will take anyone who gets lost in their woods. They use the blue light to lure
them, like moths to a flame, and we find their bodies hanging in the morning.”
Covington, Rhode Island: Quaint. Colonial. Haunted? It’s a perfect postcard of a town and a tourist’s delight but its charming residents live with a terrible curse. Something in the woods on Lost Hill has claimed dozens of lives and the townspeople believe Covington’s shameful history is to blame.
When do cold cases become too cold? Is justice only for the living? Dr. Aiden Sharp only sees facts and he only seeks the truth. He isn’t capable of imagining, in fact. But he begins to question his sanity and reality the moment he arrives in Covington. Logic is fluid and superstition carries just as much weight as the law in the small coastal town. The ideal hunting ground for a killer, if you think about it. Every clue only leads to more questions as Aiden struggles to solve an impossible case while surrounded by “crackpots.”
What better sidekick for solving an impossible crime than an impossible criminal? Mr. Lavender gets much more than he bargained for when he volunteers to escort Aiden to a quiet seaside community. He expects a case of thirty-eight hangings to be a lark but finds himself face-to-face with a danger he can’t kill. The case proves baffling, the town unsettling, and Aiden goes out of his way to test Lavender’s patience. Our favorite “reformed” assassin soon learns that life is for the living but the dead don’t always go quietly.

**This book includes topics that may be distressing to some readers. Suicide and hangings are discussed and there are descriptions of violent acts against women and children.