Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery.

Only Steven’s Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it’s too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he’ll do it.

So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer . . .

Reviews

Original, unsettling and atmospheric, this is a debut that hits the ground running--VAL MCDERMID

Thought-provoking and utterly original. --Mo Hayder

A very special debut thriller, and a clear-eyed depiction of ordinary people under extraordinary stress. This is something quite new. --Ann Cleeves (CWA Gold Dagger Winner 2006)

Exceptional debut...A new UK crime writer to shout about. --Bookseller

With this extraordinarily powerful and provocative debut, Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller. Imagine Thomas Harris crossed with Kate Atkinson and you still won't be close... top-notch, absolutely terrifying suspense... Right from the start you know you are reading something both new and with real guts --Daily Mirror

This astonishingly assured debut...for once lives up to the hype... a psychological tour-de-force about the cruelty of hope and, ultimately, the triumph of innocence --Guardian

Author Biography

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters. Belinda lives in Wales and is currently working on her second novel.