The Secret at No.4

One street, ten doors, who’s the killer?

The street that contains No.4 is a dark place, secrets linger and whispers of a murder haunt it. The residents have learnt to live with its sinister past, but when one of their own returns to hunt for the truth, their welcome is far from warm…

Fifteen years ago, 35-year-old Henry Carr vanished outside his parents' house on a run-down street in Manchester.

Today, a cold case podcast has brought the disappearance to international attention.

Now, a young journalist hopes that she might be able to get the locals to open up. After all, she was one of them. But returning won't be easy; there are many reasons why Ruth fled six years ago.

There’s minimal evidence, no body and a street in silence. Yet Henry’s elderly and dementia suffering mother, Marianne, appears haunted. She whispers and screams that her son was killed and buried on the street they call home.

With the anniversary of Henry’s disappearance fast approaching, Ruth has just days to uncover the truth of what happened to the man she once knew. The more Ruth learns, the more she comes to understand:
It might take a street to keep a secret, but it takes just one woman to set it free…

About the author

S. L. McManus is a teacher from Manchester. She wrote her debut The Secret at No.4 during lockdown, focusing on questions around the complexity of relationships and community across time and generations. She also wants to see the neighbourhoods she grew up in represented in the crime fiction she loves to read. She is currently writing her second novel.