First published 2011
George Magruder brings his wife Louise and daughter to remote Trencher's Farm in Cornwall. The American professor needs quiet to complete his book, but the isolated Cornish countryside proves far from peaceful. When George's car strikes and kills a child murderer who has escaped from a mental institution, the accident triggers a deadly confrontation with the area's brutal residents. The locals turn hostile, viewing the American family as outsiders who don't belong. George must defend his wife and daughter as violence escalates around their rented farmhouse. What began as a scholarly retreat becomes a desperate fight for survival against neighbors who show no mercy to strangers.
Genres: adventure, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, stranger-in-a-strange-land
Setting: Cornwall, Trencher's Farm
Period: 20th-century
192 pages · Paperback · Titan Books
Content warnings: violence