The stunning new literary thriller from the bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial

''Ward''s most complex and brilliant book yet'' - GUARDIAN ''A darkly moving and heartfelt exploration of obsession'' - DAILY EXPRESS Writers are monsters. We eat everything we see... In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the shadowy figure of the Daggerman, who stalked the New England town where they spent their summers. Of a horror that has followed Wilder through the decades. And of Sky, Wilder''s one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, The Sound and the Dagger . This book will be Wilder''s revenge on Sky, who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why. But as he writes, Wilder begins to find notes written in Sky''s signature green ink, and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? And who is the dark-haired woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see? No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder feels his grip on reality slipping. And he begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.

Autorentext
Catriona Ward was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in the US, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen and Morocco. She read English at the University of Oxford and spent several years working as an actor in New York. When she returned to the UK she worked on her first novel while writing for a human rights foundation, then took an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, Rawblood, was published in 2015 and won the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel in 2016. She won again in 2018 for Little Eve, which also won the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award. In 2021 she published her bestselling novel The Last House on Needless Street, which was both a Richard and Judy Book Club and BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club pick. It was awarded the August Derleth Award in 2022, making Ward the only woman to prize three times. She was shortlisted again for her fourth novel, Sundial, in 2023. Her fifth novel, Looking Glass Sound, was shortlisted the Fingerprint Genre-Busting Book of the Year in 2024. Her next novel, Nowhere Burning, will be published by Viper in 2025.

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AN OBSERVER BEST BOOK OF YEAR 'Ward's most complex and brilliant book yet' - GUARDIAN 'A darkly moving and heartfelt exploration of obsession' - DAILY EXPRESS Writers are monsters. We eat everything we see... In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the shadowy figure of the Daggerman, who stalked their New England town. And it is the story of Sky, Wilder's one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir to turn it into a lurid bestselling novel, then died without ever explaining why. This book is Wilder's last chance for revenge. But as he writes, he begins to find notes written in Sky's signature green ink, and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? And who is the dark-haired woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see? With his grip on reality slipping, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does... 'So beautiful, so dark and so vivid' - JENNIFER SAINT 'A beautifully sinister tale of perception and identity' - JOANNE HARRIS 'Enthralling and heartbreaking' - M.R. CAREY