A pitch-black rediscovered classic about female rage and collective hysteria in the wake of a child's disappearance from a sleepy commuter town - perfect for fans of Patricia Highsmith, Celia Dale and Ottessa Moshfegh - with a new introduction by Camilla Grudova.
She was dead even before I became aware of her existence...[large quote, designed up]
A child has been abducted from a sleepy Kent village, her face plastered across the media. As the crime unleashes a wave of hysteria, the claustrophobic world of Rowan Anderson and his inscrutable wife begins to disintegrate. Consumed by her macabre fixation, Cressida is determined to save their sickly daughter, Mary Rose, from the same fate - and perhaps even from Rowan himself.
With caustic wit and pitch-black brilliance, Caroline Blackwood creates a skin-crawling - and utterly compulsive - story of repressed violence, female rage, and maternal obsession.
'One of the greatest, darkest writers who ever lived' Virginia Feito
'Caroline Blackwood sits firmly alongside the greats like Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith' Araminta Hall
'A devastating investigation of neurosis, hysteria and cruelty' Observer
'A winner . . . Guaranteed to disturb' Sunday Times
With a new introduction by Camilla Grudova
