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Hunter & Chase #2
Field of Stones
After seven hundred years of silence, a plague village claims one more death...
They called Ashenby cursed ground — a medieval village wiped out by plague and left to rot on the Suffolk heath, its ruined stones untouched by generations who knew better than to dig there.
But now a university archaeological team has broken through the ruins and found something that isn't centuries old — a body, sealed inside a hidden wartime foxhole, dead barely a week. Russell Fairbanks was a local soldier gone AWOL who came home to bury his mother. Nobody reported him missing, nobody went looking, and now nobody can explain how he ended up dead beneath the bare ruins of a village that's been empty since the Black Death.
DCI Chloe Hunter is still settling into the town she grew up in and the job she fought to earn — and still working alongside the father who walked out on her fifteen years ago. DI Donovan Chase claims he knows nothing about the Fairbanks family, but in Halewick, everyone knows everyone, and Donnie Chase knows more than most.
But as Chloe peels back the layers of Fairbanks' life, she finds a town full of people with reasons to want him forgotten, an archaeological discovery that has turned the team against each other, old debts that don't add up, and a death that looks less accidental with every question she asks.
Can Chloe and her team uncover what really happened to Russell Fairbanks — before the secrets buried at Ashenby stay buried for good?
The second book in the series of procedural crime thrillers featuring DCI Chloe Hunter and DI Donovan Chase spins out of the critically acclaimed Declan Walsh series of books.
They called Ashenby cursed ground — a medieval village wiped out by plague and left to rot on the Suffolk heath, its ruined stones untouched by generations who knew better than to dig there.
But now a university archaeological team has broken through the ruins and found something that isn't centuries old — a body, sealed inside a hidden wartime foxhole, dead barely a week. Russell Fairbanks was a local soldier gone AWOL who came home to bury his mother. Nobody reported him missing, nobody went looking, and now nobody can explain how he ended up dead beneath the bare ruins of a village that's been empty since the Black Death.
DCI Chloe Hunter is still settling into the town she grew up in and the job she fought to earn — and still working alongside the father who walked out on her fifteen years ago. DI Donovan Chase claims he knows nothing about the Fairbanks family, but in Halewick, everyone knows everyone, and Donnie Chase knows more than most.
But as Chloe peels back the layers of Fairbanks' life, she finds a town full of people with reasons to want him forgotten, an archaeological discovery that has turned the team against each other, old debts that don't add up, and a death that looks less accidental with every question she asks.
Can Chloe and her team uncover what really happened to Russell Fairbanks — before the secrets buried at Ashenby stay buried for good?
The second book in the series of procedural crime thrillers featuring DCI Chloe Hunter and DI Donovan Chase spins out of the critically acclaimed Declan Walsh series of books.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2026
About the author
Jack Gatland
102 books271 followersJack Gatland is the pen name of #1 New York Times Bestselling Writer Tony Lee, who has been writing in all medias for over thirty years including comics, graphic novels, middle grade books, audio drama, TV and film for DC, Marvel, BBC, ITV, Random House, Penguin USA, Hachette and a ton of other publishers and broadcasters on licenses such as Doctor Who, Spider Man, X-Men, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Doctors, Wallace and Gromit and Shrek. As Tony, he’s toured the country talking to reluctant readers with his ‘Change The Channel’ school tours.
He’s currently a member of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, the Society of Authors, The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers and the Crime Writer’s Association.
As Jack, he’s writing a new series of Crime Thrillers starring Detective Inspector Declan Walsh, recently seconded to the City of London Police department known as the Last Chance Saloon.
The first twelve of these, LETTER FROM THE DEAD, MURDER OF ANGELS, HUNTER HUNTED, WHISPER FOR THE REAPER, TO HUNT A MAGPIE, A RITUAL FOR THE DYING, KILLING THE MUSIC, A DINNER TO DIE FOR, BEHIND THE WIRE, HEAVY IS THE CROWN, STALKING THE RIPPER and A QUIVER OF SORROWS are available now, with book thirteen, MURDER BY MISTLETOE released in December 2022 – with further adventures continuing throughout 2023.
In addition to that, the first book in a new series of Adventure Mysteries starring Robin-Hood style con-man forger-turned treasure hunter Damian Lucas, THE LIONHEART CURSE was released in January 2022, and he has both a new series of crime procedurals, spinning out of the DI Walsh series and featuring ‘Cop for Criminals’ Ellie Reckless including PAINT THE DEAD and STEAL THE GOLD, and a new spy series, spinning out of the DI Walsh series and featuring burned MI5 agent Tom Marlowe including SLEEPING SOLDIERS and TARGET LOCKED.
He can be found at www.tonylee.co.uk and www.jackgatland.com.
He’s currently a member of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, the Society of Authors, The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers and the Crime Writer’s Association.
As Jack, he’s writing a new series of Crime Thrillers starring Detective Inspector Declan Walsh, recently seconded to the City of London Police department known as the Last Chance Saloon.
The first twelve of these, LETTER FROM THE DEAD, MURDER OF ANGELS, HUNTER HUNTED, WHISPER FOR THE REAPER, TO HUNT A MAGPIE, A RITUAL FOR THE DYING, KILLING THE MUSIC, A DINNER TO DIE FOR, BEHIND THE WIRE, HEAVY IS THE CROWN, STALKING THE RIPPER and A QUIVER OF SORROWS are available now, with book thirteen, MURDER BY MISTLETOE released in December 2022 – with further adventures continuing throughout 2023.
In addition to that, the first book in a new series of Adventure Mysteries starring Robin-Hood style con-man forger-turned treasure hunter Damian Lucas, THE LIONHEART CURSE was released in January 2022, and he has both a new series of crime procedurals, spinning out of the DI Walsh series and featuring ‘Cop for Criminals’ Ellie Reckless including PAINT THE DEAD and STEAL THE GOLD, and a new spy series, spinning out of the DI Walsh series and featuring burned MI5 agent Tom Marlowe including SLEEPING SOLDIERS and TARGET LOCKED.
He can be found at www.tonylee.co.uk and www.jackgatland.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
Fields of Stone by Jack Gatland is book 2 in the Hunter & Chase series. It is published on 28 September. The archaeological dig team had been in the plague village of Ashenby for 4 weeks. They had had some success, until they uncovered more than they bargained for. However, the investigation doesn’t go in the direction they expected it to go. DCI Chloe Hunter and DI Donovan Chase are daughter and estranged father. The tension between the two is settling but still has a way to go. There is also tension between DC Clifford Elliot and Ex-DCI Brown, who left before he was thrown out. The story got its hooks into me, and I found it hard to put down. I just had to keep reading. I am enjoying finding out about the characters. It is early days yet in the series, but I am looking forward to reading more.
October 8, 2026
I hate to say this but these books are starting to sound like the writing is being « assisted » Expressions such as « sit with this » or « carry this » are repeated so often that a good writer or editor would say that is was enough.
Other than that the story was decent.
Other than that the story was decent.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews