Detective Inspector Richard Thornhill could be the new Morse if TV schedulers have their way: don't miss the breakout book from this hugely talented award-winning crime writer

Guilt, murder, ghosts -- will David and Lily ever escape the past?

'Andrew Taylor digs deep to explore the tangled roots of sex, violence and religion. This is a fine thriller, with clues complex enough to tax a Morse' Reginald Hill

'Complex, with lots of sinister implications! moves the traditional crime novel on to some deeper level of exploration' Jane Jakeman, Independent

Margaret, an anxious mother, is desperately enquiring about her missing daughter. Then a woman's body is found - battered, mutilated and broken. And one mother's life is shattered forever. Margaret must decide how far she will go to ensure her daughter's sadistic killer is brought to justice. By hunting him down will she become his next victim?

A summer holiday with her eccentric, infuriating family and assorted glamorous hangers-on is the last thing Tash French would usually volunteer for. But her mother is insistent and, out of a job and ditched by her boyfriend, Tash decides that spending July in the rambling Loire chateau might have its compensations.