I thought this was even better than Girl on the Train. The way the characters are drawn into a web and the relationships gradually unfold is wonderfully done. And the descriptions of the island are poetic.
Get ready to be totally gripped by the suspense-packed and atmospheric new 2025 thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train.
*****'Blew me away. I want to read it again IMMEDIATELY. ' 5-STAR Reader Review***** For twelve hours each day, the Scottish island of Eris is cut off from the mainland. No way in. No way out.
The island's only house is home to Grace - content in her own isolation, guarding the island's past. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery in London, Grace receives an unexpected visitor. And the…
Dystopia now seems to be waning as a genre, mainly because there's been a lot of very similar stuff. This is different - powerful and compelling. The Guardian called it "the Lake District's answer to The Handmaid's Tale". This does it a disservice by suggesting it's derivative. It's not. There's plenty of originality here.
The world has changed. War rages in South America and China, and Britain - now entirely dependent on the US for food and energy - is run by an omnipresent dictatorship known simply as The Authority. Assets and weapons have been seized, every movement is monitored and women are compulsorily fitted with contraceptive devices. This is Sister's story of her attempt to escape the repressive regime. From the confines of her Lancaster prison cell she tells of her such for The Carhullan Army, a quasi-mythical commune of 'unofficial' women rumoured to be living in a remote part of Cumbria...
This is much more than a boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy gets girl story. Yes, that's the arc of the plot, but how it gets there is absorbing and in places touch-and-go. It abounds in delights, frustrations, and puzzlements.
'A lovely novel, delicately drawn, with characters that really linger in the mind . . . I got really swept up in it.' Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us
You never forget the one that got away.
Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape.
But that was years ago and Ali hasn't thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him 'the one that got away'; after all, she'd been the one to run.
Then Dan's name pops up on her phone, with a link…
In the seaside village of Tideswell, things are not what they seem. Beneath its peaceful exterior, sinister forces lurk. Holly Mason, a gifted amateur artist, vanished from Tideswell a year ago. Now her older sister, Alice, returns to settle her affairs. It should be straightforward, but it's not. Conflicting accounts of Holly’s behaviour twist through the village, and paintings found in her studio reveal dark visions of witch trials and of a monstrous figure that rises from the sea. As Alice digs deeper, she uncovers disturbing truths, but the Tideswell community is turning against her. Violence erupts, and Alice is almost drowned. She lives, but suffers from loss of memory. She returns home to be cared for by Simon, her seemingly devoted husband, but she finds that even there appearances are deceptive. Torn between truth and illusion, family secrets and manipulation, Alice must summon the courage to reclaim her life before she, too, is drowned by Tideswell’s shadows.
"Dark, claustrophobic, and spooky". The Wishing Shelf
"Truly haunting, an atmospheric tale that blends domestic drama with creeping unease. Highly recommended." The International Review of Books
