STAGS

It is the autumn term, and Greer MacDonald is struggling to settle into the sixth form at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged pupils as S.T.A.G.S. To her surprise Greer receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: huntin' shootin' fishin' - an invitation to spend the half-term weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S.

After the dramatic events of the last few weeks, Greer Macdonald is trying to concentrate on her A levels. Stuck for a play to direct for her drama exam, she gets help from an unexpected quarter...A priceless lost play, buried by time, is pushed under her door. It is Ben Jonson's The Isle of Dogs, a play considered so dangerous in Elizabethan times that every copy was burned...except one. As the students begin to rehearse, events become increasingly dark and strange and they lead Greer back to where she never thought she would return - Longcross Hall.

Greer has just recovered from her terrifying experience during the S.T.A.G.S. play. Was she really put on trial by the sinister Dark Order of the Grand Stag? Or was it purely her overheated imagination? The imprint of an M for murderer that has appeared on her thumb, though, is puzzling but incomplete evidence.... Meanwhile Ty is staying on at Longcross Manor and Greer, Nel and Shafeen are increasingly worried for her safety. When Ty sends a cryptic message directing them to Cumberland Place, the de Warlencourts' palatial home in London, they decide to risk a visit.

Shafeen's father, Prince Aadhish, has had a heart attack and is close to death. Desperately worried, Shafeen and Greer race from Stags to Rajasthan. But Prince Aadhish is in a coma and unresponsive, and they begin to realise that the prince received a terrible shock, triggered by a decades-old guilty secret. But as Shafeen and Greer attempt to unlock the secret, they come to believe the answer lies with the de Warlencourt ancestor, Colonel Montgomery, founder of the T.I.G.E.R. shooting club.

Determined to crush the Order of the Stag once and for all, and in a desperate last throw of the dice, Greer walks willingly into the lion's den by accepting a sinister invitation to Castle McLeod, a Scottish stately home in the Isle of Skye. Greer will be aided and kept safe by Shafeen and Nel, and the enigmatic Abbot Ridley. Plus, of course, Henry de Warlencourt, who will accompany her and insists he has changed his colours. But as their darkly fraught romance evolves, can Greer trust him as she places her life in his hands?