Storm, shingle, skeleton—Treggan Bay’s past washes ashore.
A storm-tossed rowboat below Hollow Eye Lighthouse carries a skeleton and three clues. Drawn in by DS Scott Langdon and aided by Issey Ashford, Noah Yalland follows evidence—watch, pistol, cigarette case—into old money, politics, and village loyalties. Slow-burn queer romance, coastal cold case atmosphere, and a lighthouse that keeps secrets; stand-alone.
A winter storm drives a rowboat onto the shingle below Hollow Eye Lighthouse. Inside: a weather-dressed skeleton and three stubborn clues—a Belgian pocket pistol, a cigarette case with “WICKED TODAY,” and a gold pocket watch.
Noah Yalland was trying to keep his head down in Treggan Bay. Then DS Scott Langdon brings the case to his kitchen table and Issey Ashford arrives with a notebook. Forensics point to a decades-old shooting and a body hidden somewhere damp before the sea returned it.
As the trio follow the watch’s trail into old money and politics, village loyalties, smuggling talk, and a lighthouse that seems to collect secrets close in.
Can Noah name the dead man and pry open what the bay kept shut—before the cost of the truth lands too close?
Behind the Pages
Each summer, I find myself wandering the coast paths of Devon—those ribbon-thin trails that flirt with the edge of the sea—wondering what secrets might be tucked beneath the rocks and gorse. The air smells of salt and wild thyme; the cottages huddle together against the wind, their stone walls crusted with sea spray, their roofs furred with lichen in the afternoon sun. Tiny gardens bloom between them—lavender, mint, and mischief. It’s the sort of place where stories don’t need to be written; they simply rise from the soil like mist after rain.
And it was there, between the leaning chimney stacks and gossiping gulls, that I stumbled upon Noah Yalland—London journalist, resourceful enough to untangle Parliament but somehow incapable of boiling an egg without supervision. He arrived in Treggan Bay like an uninvited guest at a wake and, naturally, tripped over a murder before he had his first cup of coffee.
Among the so-called ‘charming’ residents, Noah found himself reluctantly untangling one mystery after another—if only to make it back in time for supper with Leo, who has the patience of a saint and the griddle of a tyrant.
Jern Tonkoi
Reader praise
“The Watchman’s Secret by Jern Tonkoi is a beautifully written coastal mystery, steeped in atmosphere and quiet emotion. This book feels lived in — you can almost smell the salt in the air, hear the gulls, and catch snatches of conversation from old fishermen on the quay. The setting on the south Devon coast feels authentic and immersive, a perfect backdrop for the kind of mystery that unfolds slowly but purposefully.”
