A chilling debut inspired by high-profile cases of abduction and imprisonment that explores the complex truths we are able to keep hidden from ourselves and the gruesome realities that can lurk beneath the most serene of surfaces.

Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John, in a decaying Georgian townhouse on the edge of a bleak English seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to shut out the secret that John keeps locked away in the cellar.

But when questions are asked, and secrets unravel, we realise that John might not be the only one with a dark side . . .

Catherine Burns's dark, disturbing, and enthralling debut novel . . . is bizarrely unsettling, yet compulsively readable. - Iain Reid, author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things

A complex and chilling world in which nothing is as it seems*. -* Suellen Dainty, author of The Housekeeper and After Everything

By far the creepiest novel I have read in a long time ... a highly original and intriguing mystery. - Liz Nugent, author of Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait

Deliberate pacing, a claustrophobic setting, and vivid, unsympathetic characters complement the twisted plot and grim conclusion. - Publishers Weekly