The Iron Veil
The river gives up its dead at first light. A young woman lies tangled in the silt beneath the old foundry, and Detective Nora Holloway is called to a town that has learned to keep its mouth shut. The Penrose family controls everything in Ashwell , the works, the wages, and the version of events that reaches the press. As Nora combs the water's edge for evidence, the medical examiner hedges on cause of death, a grieving brother offers an alibi that fractures under pressure, and a journalist begins pulling threads the family would rather leave buried. Each interview tightens the noose around someone new, and someone is already watching to see which name she whispers into the dark. With the killer's fingerprints cooling in the river mud, Nora faces a choice that will define her career and the town: pursue the truth into the foundry's shadow, or let the iron veil close over Ashwell's dead forever.