It begins as a Halloween prank. It ends in cold-blooded murder.

Halloween. One of the busiest nights of the year for Lincolnshire police. Special Constable Jane Bell is called out to reports of someone in a Dracula mask terrorising the residents of a nearby estate with a fake knife. She races to the scene — but the man in the mask flees into the night.

The next morning, Detective Steph Warwick turns up on Jane’s doorstep. There’s been a murder. Dracula went on to attack two women, retired schoolteacher Susan Gedney and her daughter Gina. Susan died at the scene, Gina survived. The knife turned out to be all too real.

Then another young woman disappears from the picturesque village where Susan and Gina lived. She was last seen out on a country walk — but she never returned.

Three women targeted from the same small village. This is no coincidence.