First published 2006
Ten-year-old Maureen Sutton lies dead in the woods outside a quiet Kent commuter village. The brutal crime sends shockwaves through the close-knit community, but nowhere are the reverberations felt more acutely than in the Anderson household. Historian Rowan Anderson struggles to make sense of the senseless violence that has invaded his orderly world. His wife Cressida grapples with her own fears and anxieties as the investigation unfolds. At the center of their turmoil stands their daughter Mary Rose, already weakened by illness, now forced to confront the reality that children can be hurt and killed. As the family tries to process the tragedy, the murder becomes a lens through which their own vulnerabilities are magnified. Blackwood examines how a single act of violence can unravel the fabric of ordinary lives, exposing the fragility beneath suburban respectability.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Kent, United Kingdom
Period: 20th-century
244 pages · Paperback · FLAMMARION
Content warnings: child-death, violence