From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Hours Before Dawn

Jolted from sleep by the ringing of the telephone, Imogen stumbles through the dark, empty house to answer it. At first, she can't quite understand the man on the other end of the line. Surely he can't honestly be accusing her of killing her husband, Ivor, who died in a car crash barely two months ago.


As the nights draw in, Imogen finds her home filling up with unexpected Christmas guests, who may be looking for more than simple festive cheer. Has someone been rifling through Ivor's papers? Who left the half-drunk whiskey bottle beside his favourite chair? And why won't that man stop phoning, insisting he can prove Imogen's guilt?

'The story unfolds with brilliant ingenuity, always on the verge of explanation, ever plausibly plunging deeper.' The Times

'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

'Dark, hilarious, engrossing and genuinely chilling . . . it could only have been written by Celia Fremlin.' Kate Murray-Browne, autho rof The Upstairs Room