THE RUSH
* A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick *
Gold fever has taken him. I believe he means to kill me…
Canada, 1898. The gold rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.
In its midst, three women are trying to survive on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister, who fears that her husband will kill her. Martha’s hotel is under threat from the local strongman who is buying up the town. And down by the river, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the gold they risked so much to seek.
When a woman is murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer, they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold…
Rich in its setting and characters, The Rush is a gripping historical crime novel perfect for readers of Stef Penney by way of Kristin Hannah and C Pam Zhang.
Out 10th June UK
Waterstones / Amazon / Bookshop.org / Goldsboro Books Exclusive Edition
Out 7th October US
CHILDREN OF THE SUN
Welcome to Atlas. What would you do for a second chance?
Summer 1982. Deep in the Adirondack Mountains, over three hundred people live off-grid in a secret community. Atlas is a refuge for broken souls who long for a different life. Founded by the enigmatic Sol, the group now prepares for their final ceremony: the opening of the Golden Door. They believe they will cross to another world, to a new life where their past decisions never ended in tragedy.
James Morrow is a rookie New York City reporter intent on making his name with an exposé of the crazy cult in the woods. He secures an invitation to the camp on the condition he tell the world of its wonders, but James is a sceptic. He’s sure there must be more to the mysterious leader and his endgame than his followers have signed up for.
James soon finds there is a darker side to the cult beyond the prayers and yellow robes. A group of children are treated like gods, there are iron strips embedded in the earth, and nobody talks about what’s behind the gates of Sol’s private sanctuary. As James learns the stories of the members and how they came to be there, he begins to understand the desperate nature of their beliefs – a desperation he knows all too well.
As the final ceremony draws near, James must ask himself: what will it cost them to reach this other life? And is that a price he’s willing to pay?
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THE ORIGINS OF IRIS
* Shortlisted for the Polari Prize*
One woman. Two lives. How far will she go to find herself?
On the outside, Iris and Claude have a perfect marriage, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. One terrible night Claude’s abuse goes too far and Iris flees into the Catskill mountains.
In the wilderness, Iris comes face to face with another version of herself. A woman who never met Claude and seemingly made all the right choices in life.
Trapped by an oncoming storm, Iris must uncover why they are there, what it means, and if the other Iris is even real. As the storm hits, the truth of what happened that fateful night will change everything.
An important, searing novel about one woman’s journey in fleeing an abusive relationship and confronting the secrets of her past.
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER
BITTER SUN
It all started when we found the body… Then nothing was ever the same.
The Dry meets Stand by Me and True Detective in this stunningly written tale of the darkness at the heart of a small mid-Western town and the four kids who uncover it.
In the heatwave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder. But they dig too deep and ask too many questions. Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest, and the people teeter on the edge of ruin. As tension and paranoia run rife, rumours become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control.
And John, Jenny, Gloria and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left buried…
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER
THE WOLF ROAD
Fear is always one step ahead…
ELKA BARELY REMEMBERS a time before she knew Trapper. She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other.
But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He’s a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim.
Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper’s drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn’t left Trapper behind—and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she’s going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she’s been set on.
The Wolf Road is an intimate cat-and-mouse tale of revenge and redemption, played out against a vast, unforgiving landscape—told by an indomitable young heroine fighting to escape her past and rejoin humanity.
*One of Amazon.com’s Best Books of 2016 and Book of the Month June 2016*
*Shortlisted for the inaugural Glass Bell Award*
*Over 2,000 FIVE STAR ratings on Goodreads *