Reviews
In 1987 Sheila Shand was given a suspended sentence for murdering her father. At her trial, it emerged that she and her mother and sister had been forced to shield brutal sadist Leslie Shand while he subjected them to a reign of terror, daily beatings and sexual abuse. Years later, investigative journalist Amy Vaughan discovers letters and a newspaper cutting about the Shand case while clearing out her late mother's flat. Concluding that she must be related to the Shands, she decides to visit Sheila's mother who is in a care home. Amy is curious about the elderly Iris Shand who pores over an album of family photos, for Amy knows that photographs tell lies. Her own mother had subjected her to a different form of abuse - Munchausen By Proxy, using snaps of the daughter she'd made sick to try to keep the affections of Amy's father George, a charismatic con-man. Then George appears on Amy's doorstep after a long absence and tells her that he is dying of cancer. Soon she discovers that he may be lying about far more than his health. As she pursues her investigation of the Shand case, Amy realises that there is more to the murder of Leslie than the police ever unearthed, including two long-buried skeletons in woods near the family's home …
'Laura Wilson has written a mean, compulsive thriller, where violence, child abuse, murder, incest, cruelty, and long hidden family secrets mix together in a stew of passion and guilt. Heavy stuff. And already hotly tipped as a prize winner.'
Mark Timlin
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
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