Elaine Thomson

For fans of Michelle Paver and Sarah Waters, the second in a quartet of exquisitely haunting ghost stories set in the wilds of Scotland. The Isle of Stroma, 1896. Tom Torrance has been sent to oversee the completion of a new lighthouse, which will guide ships through one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the United Kingdom. The construction so far has been plagued by difficulties, giving rise to superstitious whisperings amongst the men, but Tom is a man of sense and science. He will not be cowed by stories of hauntings and bad omens. Yet Tom is unprepared for the conditions on the island: the isolation and delirium of the endless summer nights. He soon learns that the real dangers on the island have nothing to do with the wild waves. There are some problems that science cannot answer, and some threats so ancient and strange, that nothing can keep them at bay. PRAISE FOR ELAINE THOMSON'I was so impressed by Hawthorn' MICHELLE PAVER, author of Dark Matter'Delightfully brooding and gloriously gothic' CJ COOKE, author of The Book of Witching 'A hugely entertaining and evocative treat' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding 'A new classic' SARA SHERIDAN, author of The Fair Botanists'The best Scottish ghost story of the 21st Century so far' HERALD 'A wonderfully atmospheric ghost story' 5* NETGALLEY REVIEW'A truly haunting tale, beautifully written' 5* NETGALLEY REVIEW

For fans of Michelle Paver and Sarah Waters, the first in a haunting quartet of ghost stories set in the wilds of Scotland. ''I was so impressed by Hawthorn'' MICHELLE PAVER, author of Dark Matter''Delightfully brooding and gloriously gothic, Hawthorn sucked me in like the deepest bog, refusing to let me go'' CJ COOKE, author of The Book of Witching ''Reminded me of The Little Stranger . . . a hugely entertaining and evocative treat'' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding''A new classic'' SARA SHERIDAN, author of The Fair Botanists_________Caithness, October 1871.The Ordnance Survey are charting Scotland''s most remote north-easterly county, a bleak landscape of endless moorland and lonely crofts. When a strange vision leads cartographer Robert Sutherland out onto the moor, an accident leaves him inches from death. He is taken to Leask House, to recuperate under the care of Mrs Sinclair and her beautiful daughter Isabel. At first, Robert thinks the dreadful visions that plague him at Leask House are the result of the laudanum he has been prescribed. But as events take ever stranger and more terrifying turns, Robert begins to wonder whether his presence at Leask House is really a coincidence at all. Someone - or something - has summoned him here. And they don''t intend for him to leave.