The Hanging Ground

A body hangs from Belfast’s Lagan Bridge, staged with chilling precision to resemble an execution buried in Northern Ireland’s darkest history. The victim carries a looping video from decades ago - a recording that should not exist.

Retired detective Eamon Fallon has spent thirty years burying the past. Alone on a remote sheep farm in the Mourne Mountains, he believed the secrets of the Troubles had died with those who kept them. Then an anonymous message arrives: “We know you were there. We have the photograph.” His carefully constructed life begins to collapse.

Detective Chief Inspector Aoife O’Kane is investigating a series of ritualistic murders, each tied to classified files, forgotten atrocities, and powerful figures determined to keep history hidden. Someone is recreating crimes from the past with meticulous accuracy, leaving clues only Fallon can interpret.

Forced back into a world he swore never to revisit, Fallon must confront his role in a decades-old conspiracy before more bodies appear. But every answer threatens to expose secrets capable of shaking Northern Ireland to its core.

The Hanging Ground launches the Cold Ground series, blending atmospheric crime, historical conspiracy, psychological suspense, and morally conflicted investigators in a haunting mystery where the past refuses to stay buried.