Death Wears A Golden Cloak
A serial killer stalks a snowbound Swedish town ... with marriage in mind
The priest in a snow-blanketed Swedish town opens her church and discovers a dead woman on the altar. The corpse is dressed in a wedding gown and clutches a fresh bunch of cornflowers. Fatima Engquist has no signs of violence on her body and the local cops soon call the Stockholm murder squad. Kriminalinspektör Stella Cole lands the case.
Once a rising star at Scotland Yard, Stella calls Sweden home now. She was blackmailed into leaving Britain by an ambitious Home Secretary who knows all about her dark past and is exploiting Stella’s guilty secrets for her own ends.
More dead brides
On the case with Stella are detectives Johanna Carlsson and Oskar Norgrim. As they investigate Fatima Engquist’s murder, another dead woman is found on the same church altar. Also wearing her wedding dress. Also holding a posy of out-of-season cornflowers.
Fatima's brothers appear to be prime suspects, but then an unexpected turn of events changes the case entirely. Meanwhile, the town priest is doing some sleuthing of her own. But is her interest as innocent as it seems?
"I'm not the evil one, Stella!"
With pressure from her boss and the Swedish media to produce an early result before any more dead brides turn up, Stella Cole needs to be at her sharpest to catch a serial killer who doesn’t even believe he’s evil.
He's following the case intently, and starts targeting people who are obscuring his "message" - and that includes Stella herself.
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Andy Maslen
Andy Maslen is an author whose gripping thrillers and sharp, fast-paced narratives have captivated readers around the world. With a knack for creating high-octane, edge-of-your-seat plots, Andy's novels draw readers into a world where danger lurks around every corner and nothing is quite as it seems.
Born and raised in the UK, Andy's early career was in marketing and advertising, where he honed his skills as a writer, learning how to grab attention and keep people hooked. But after years of crafting ads, he decided to turn his hand to something more personal—fiction. His transition from the world of advertising to the realm of suspense and thriller writing was a natural one. The same instincts that made him a successful copywriter—an understanding of pacing, suspense, and compelling characters—became the backbone of his novels.
Stella Cole
Stella Cole consists of eight primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
