Rachel Doe is a shy accountant at a low ebb in life when she meets charismatic Ivy Schneider, nee Wiseman, at her evening class and her life changes for the better. Ivy is her polar oppositte: strong, six years her senior and the romantic survivor of drug addiction, homelessness and the death of her child. Ivy does menial shift work, beholden to no one, and she inspires life; as do her farming parents, with their ramshackle house and its swan-filled lake, the lake where Ivy's daughter drowned. As Rachel grows closer to them all she learns how Ivy came to be married to Carl, the son of a WWII prisoner, as well as the true nature of that marriage to a bullying and ambitious lawyer who has become a judge and who denies her access to her surviving child. Rachel wants justice for Ivy, but Ivy has another agenda and Rachel's naïve sense of fair play is no match for the manipulative qualities in the Wisemen women.
- 'A new thriller by this brilliant author is always an event.' Tim Manderson, Publishing News
- 'Her knowledge of the workings of the human mind - or more correctly the soul - is second to none.' Ian Rankin
- 'Undiluted brilliance.' The Times
- 'The best female crime writer in this country' Sunday Express
Trade Paperback
Published 06/07/2006