The Wolf Tree

Winner of the 2026 ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger award.

On a small island off the coast of Scotland, an isolated community is grieving. Eighteen-year-old Alan Ferguson was found at the foot of the lighthouse – an apparent suicide. DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate.

But a raging storm keeps them trapped on the island for four days. And the locals don’t take kindly to mainlanders. As George and Ritchie question the island’s inhabitants, they discover a village filled with superstition and shrouded in secrets.

But someone wants those secrets to stay buried. At any cost.