The Drowning Place is out in April 2026 from Harvill, the first in my new police series featuring DS Joseph Ashe, and set in the Peak District. You can pre-order from your favourite bookshop or online here.
‘Exceptional. This is impeccable crime fiction from one of the very best writers of her generation: gripping, moving, taut and utterly compelling. DS Joe Ashe and DI Laurie Bower won my heart and I’m counting the days until the next in this superb new series’ JANE CASEY
My debut Someone Else’s Skin won the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and was a World Book Night selection and a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. In the US, it was a Silver Falchion and Macavity Award finalist. No Other Darkness was shortlisted for a Barry Award.
I’m Programming Chair for St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend in Oxford, and co-founder of Ledburied, a crime festival in my home town of Ledbury. My short stories have won the Cheshire Prize for Literature, the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize, and the SENSE prize. I love hearing from readers, so please do get in touch.
A crime fiction masterclass. Sarah Hilary’s latest touches on survivor’s guilt, small towns, murders and driven detectives in prose that rivals the best in the business
STEVE CAVANAGH
Darkly atmospheric and overflowing with humanity, The Drowning Place is both breathtakingly original and an instant crime classic. A career best from the inimitable Sarah Hilary
ERIN KELLY
Works on multiple levels: a compelling murder mystery, an examination of the impact of survivor’s guilt, and an empathetic dissection of life in small town Britain. Written with Hilary’s trademark flair for prose, this first episode in a new police procedural series sings with originality and authenticity
VASEEM KHAN
Sarah Hilary has always known how to chill her readers
VAL MCDERMID
I’ve found my favourite new series. The Drowning Place is the first in Sarah Hilary’s gothic-tinged, Peak District-set police series, introducing us to an engaging and emotionally-complex cast of characters, with her trademark astute and compelling writing. A moving, gripping and unique exploration of survivor’s guilt, and the web of relationships and secrets in a small-town community. Happy Valley, but haunted. I genuinely can’t wait for the next book in the series
ANNA MAZZOLA
Beautifully written with a premise that grips you from the start, I fell in love with this new novel from Sarah Hilary
SARAH WARD
Wonderful, sad and wise. It’s a relentless crime drama, a devastating meditation on loss, and a dual character study full of humour and charm. Hilary doesn’t just investigate an unspeakable crime; she investigates the human heart. I’ll be counting the days until I can get back to Edenscar
ABIGAIL DEAN
Sarah Hilary is downright dangerous.
MICK HERRON