Simply Dead

In the depths of winter, Hortense, a midwife, disappears after attending a birth in the woodlands. During the search, Will Rees finds her struggling through the snow and woods without shoes or a coat. After two young men begin stalking the community in search of her—including targeting Rees’s own family—she is questioned further and claims she was kidnapped...but Rees and his wife Lydia are suspicious.

It's agreed that Hortense’s presence is endangering everyone’s safety and that she needs to leave. As the arrangements are made, she is hidden in Zion, the local Shaker community. But while she’s there, a Shaker Sister is murdered. Witnesses describe a man fitting Josiah Wooten’s description, a ferocious man living in the woods with two young sons.

What is the truth behind Hortense’s disappearance, and who is responsible for the death of the Shaker Sister?