THE PITCH-BLACK FORGOTTEN CLASSIC OF 2024

From the Booker-shortlisted author of Great Granny Webster, this mordant gem of a thriller is perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Celia Dale and Ottessa Moshfegh.

'One of the greatest, darkest writers who ever lived' Virginia Feito
'Vibrates with a frenzied, manic menace' Lucy Scholes
'A devastating investigation of neurosis, hysteria and cruelty' Observer
'A winner . . . Guaranteed to disturb' Sunday Times

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She was dead even before I became aware of her existence . . .

A child has been abducted from a sleepy Kent village, her face plastered across the media.

As the crime unleashes a wave of hysteria, the claustrophobic world of Rowan Anderson and his inscrutable wife begins to disintegrate. Consumed by her macabre fixation, Cressida is determined to save their sickly daughter, Mary Rose, from the same fate - and perhaps even from Rowan himself.

With caustic wit and pitch-black brilliance, Caroline Blackwood creates a skin-crawling - and utterly compulsive - story of repressed violence, female rage, and maternal obsession.