"A world class, first-rate novel" Elizabeth George

"A moving, shocking, compelling psychological drama with a mesmerising plot... impossible to put down and, once read, impossible to forget" Booklist

After rescuing Marianne Cadogan from an incoming tide on a lonely and forgotten part of Britain's coast, ex-con Ryan O'Donnell is cornered into helping her escape a supposedly abusive father to reach the safe custody of her mother.

Too late, he finds himself compromised, the subject of a trans-European manhunt while he struggles to deliver the child and prove his motives pure. The deeper in he gets, the more trapped he will become

"A fast, smart, emotionally involving and authentically new thriller which confirms Stephen Gallagher's particular fictional talent" John Williams, The Independent

"High marks for psychological terror" Daily Telegraph

"A powerful exploration of evil and redemption" Publishing News

"A taut, engrossing thriller that transcends genre to examine the fragile, contradictory balance between good and evil and finds a little of both in all of us" The Face