Aftershocks is a companion to the author's first novel, the successful and award winning Paradise Girl. However, both books stand alone, and it's not necessary to have read one to enjoy the other. A highly infectious and incurable virus spreads worldwide, eventually reaching the UK. The Shaw family live on an isolated Pennine farm. They think that their remote location will keep them safe from the infection, but they are wrong. A stranger comes to their door and brings the disease with him. Lander Shaw, the twin brother of Kerryl, the 'paradise girl' of the first book, leaves the farm and embarks on a journey to discover more about the infection and to seek a better future. He travels the length of the country, encountering both the best and the worst of humanity on a journey that is both a pilgrimage and a voyage of self-discovery. In a series of exciting episodes he is robbed, captured, and has to face a terrible choice, and realises that not everything - or everyone - is as they at first seem.