An audio book
David and Tia (a doctor) return to David's home town to start a restaurant in a castle, funded by 2 of David's schoolfriends, Nettan and Sebestian. A promotional video is made. Tia doesn't want to appear in it, but does. She becomes aware that people don't want to talk about the death of a 16 y.o. girl, Elita, back in 1986 in a Stone Circle. Elita's step-brother Leo was sentenced, though he was apparently following her orders. David was 12 at the time, a witness. His father Bertol is going senile. His mother Ingrid is an active village person. Kirsten is a local teacher.
Partly to understand Dave better, Tia becomes interested in the case, looking up archives. The autopsy report has been tampered with in a way that makes her think Elita was pregnant. The transcripted police interviews make it look like Leo was put under undue pressure to confess. Witnesses changed statements. Ingrid warns her not to pry - it's not good for her reputation. She's the local GP.
Her brother Ronnie gets in touch. She used to be Jennie. Her mother, on her deathbed, told her to get away, giving her money. She's been tracked down only because of the video. She discovers that her father's in prison. She visits him. He has terminal cancer. He won't expose her to David if she fills in the forms so that he can spend his last days at home. She asks him to ask other inmates about Leo.
Tia wonders whether Elita's deathwish in her diary was really a desire to destroy her old self and start again, much as Tia did.
She befriends Hubert, offspring of the castle's ex-owner, the Count. He likes poetry. He might have been in love with Elita but says he was in London at the time, at school.
Elita's family left the day after her funeral. The house, in the woods, has been abandoned ever since. She explores it. There are clues that Elita was preparing to leave, but that the rest of the family left in a rush. Somebody tries to lock her in the cellar. She escapes.
Then her dog is poisoned.
She visits her uncle-in-law Arlo, who was a policeman then. He still is. He has looked into her name change.
Bertol's memory is very variable. In the wood with him she pulls together the clues and he confirms the story. Hubert killed her. His father the count used his influence and money to cover things up. The kids don't really know that they'd lied. He gave Leo money after his 6 years in jail and he started a new life in Canada. He put the castle into trust for the sake of the village.
She talks to Kirsten. She was Bertol's lover. Ingrid accepted it. Kirsten tells Tia what happened to Elita's family. Her death was an accident - the horse reared up. Bertol masterminded the aftermath. Tia visits Canada and finds Leo.
In the final chapter we learn that Tia is in a coma, and nurses are catching up with her story chapter by chapter.
Seemed slow at the start. Gathered pace.
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