Claire Ackroyd

Some fears should be ignored. Others can’t be. Lara has spent years trying to outrun her past, and experience has taught her to recognise danger. So when she becomes convinced her sister Hannah’s life is at risk, she knows she can’t ignore it. The sisters are about to reunite at a remote cottage for their mother’s fiftieth birthday, and Lara is certain something terrible is coming. But Lara’s deepening anxieties only reawaken old tensions. With her young daughter watching on, she must navigate a maze of past trauma and doubts. And when relationships between the cottage guests begin to unravel, the sisters discover that some threats are all too real. As autumn leaves fall and shadows lengthen, the line between protection and destruction begins to blur. Can Lara save her sister without destroying everything—and everyone—she loves?

The secrets we bury don’t disappear. They rot…It’s twelve years since teenager Peter Ferguson drowned in Loch Ness—on the same night that Stephanie, her mother and her sister, Aurelie, were camping on its shores. In the shocking aftermath, their family and life as they knew it fell apart, and the sisters no longer speak. But now Aurelie is getting married, and Stephanie realises that a reunion might finally bring the truth about that fateful night to the surface…As the wedding celebrations get underway, tongues loosen, and dangerous whispers circulate among the guests. Yet the real danger—the rot that threatens to break them all—might come from within the family itself. As she confronts the suspicions swirling around her, Stephanie is about to uncover secrets that will change all their lives forever.She never planned to get blood on her hands in her pursuit of the truth. But as the clock ticks down on the family reunion, that may be her only option…