A stunning psychological thriller set in Cumbria past and present, from the award-winning author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series They came to the Stranger House. And death followed close behind. For over 500 years, the Stranger House has stood in the village of Illthwaite, offering refuge to all manner of travellers. People like Sam Flood, a brilliant young Australian mathematician, who believes that anything that can't be explained by maths isn't worth explaining. And Miguel Madero, a Spanish historian in flight from a priests' seminary, who sees ghosts. Sam is an experienced young woman, Mig a 26-year-old virgin. But both want to dig up bits of the past that some people would rather keep buried. As they uncover intertwining tales of murder, betrayal and love, they must put aside their differences in order to uncover the dark mysteries at the heart of this ancient place...