From the Sunday Times bestselling and Booker-longlisted author of Snap, and winner of the CWA Crime Novel of the Year, comes ‘An exciting contemporary whodunnit’ (Times Literary Supplement)

‘Extraordinary’ ANN CLEEVES

‘Pure joy’ VAL MCDERMID

‘Solid gold’ LEE CHILD

‘Astonishing’ New York Times

*****

‘A funny, moving and beautifully written tale’ Guardian

On a summer’s evening in 1926, six-year-old Celie Shepherd is hungry and desperate and not where a six-year-old should be. Instead she is dangling from a cliff, far above the sea, reaching out to pocket an impossibly beautiful thing.

This bold theft will change the course of Celie’s life, and the lives of others.

One hundred years later, a house is ransacked. The only thing missing: a dusty case containing that same impossible thing.

What could conceivably be so important that it is stolen again and again (and perhaps yet again . . .)?

So begins this extraordinary mystery from award-winning Belinda Bauer.

A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skulduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.

Praise for The Impossible Thing

‘Enthralling, hilarious, mysterious… I thoroughly enjoyed this book’ 5-STAR reader review

‘Comic, thrilling and ultimately moving’ The Scottish Mail on Sunday

‘This could be her best ever’ LEE CHILD, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

‘A captivating novel from one of the UK’s most talented storytellers. I loved every page of this unique mystery.’ CLARE MACKINTOSH, bestselling author of I Let You GO

‘One of the most enjoyable novels I’ve read in ages’ PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

Author Biography

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother.

For her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work. Her fourth novel, Rubbernecker, was voted Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Her eighth novel, Snap, was a Sunday Times bestseller. It was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and voted Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards.

Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages.