D. M. Mitchell

HYPER-ANNOTATION contributors: wayne mason, alan sondheim, d.m. mitchell, ellie chou, made in dna, francisco borges, giselle bolotin, bec lambert, n.casio poe, sophia yung, tom bland, dan macneil, callum leckie, kirill azernny, david roden publisher: kenji siratori

In November 1974, a young woman called Sylvia Tredwin goes missing. Nobody has the faintest idea where she's gone. She was wearing only a light skirt and T-shirt, didn't take anything with her, no suitcase, nothing. Simply went out one dark evening and never returned.Some say she went off with another man, because there'd already been talk in the small Somerset village of Petheram that she's that type of woman - attractive, flirty with it, dressed too provocatively. But her husband, Bruce Tredwin, doesn't believe a word of the callous whisperings of the locals as they gossip about his outsider wife. So he never gives up searching for her.A fortnight later on a stormy winter's night he finds her. She's naked in a place called Flinder's Field, wandering aimlessly, badly bruised and in total shock. But what she says to him will astound everyone. She says she's been abducted by aliens, and she was never to be the same again, with tragic consequences...Forty years later and George Lee is coming back to Petheram, the village of his birth. His estranged father has died and there are things his mother would like him to sort out. George hates the village, couldn't wait to get out and make a life for himself as a writer of cheap and gory thrillers. He notices that Adam Tredwin, Sylvia Tredwin's son, has also returned to Petheram. As children, the two used to be friends, briefly, before Adam's father was killed in the 1980s by a hit-and-run driver and Sylvia took him away from the village.But it's when George begins to tidy out his father's loft and slowly begins to learn more details about Sylvia Tredwin's disappearance that he starts to uncover dark secrets and hidden truths - discoveries that will peel back the decades to reveal a labyrinthine world of madness, jealousies, deceit, lies and murder. He little knows his idle quest to find out the truth behind Sylvia Tredwin's abduction will have profound and dangerous consequences for all concerned.D. M. Mitchell pens yet anther taut psychological thriller and murder mystery, set in the claustrophobic world of a small Somerset village, with a bevy of believable characters and a plot that twists and turns in Mitchell's inimitable style to a deliciously shocking and unexpected conclusion.

From the bestselling author of 'MOUSE' and 'THE HOUSE OF THE WICKED'Susan and Paul Carmichael's world is devastated when a small-time burglar and drug addict, Eddie Hull, brutally murders their only child, young student Becky Carmichael.Consumed by grief, they both struggle to come to terms with their tremendous loss. Their fragile relationship under mounting pressure, Susan begins to have dreams about her daughter. She is convinced these are not ordinary dreams; Becky is calling out to her for help. But this revelation only serves to drive a further wedge between the grieving couple.In desperation, Susan trawls a number of so-called psychics, but is bitterly disappointed by charlatans and fraudsters. When she finally starts to accept that the dreams are a natural part of the grieving process, she is meets the mysterious Silas Blake.He tells her things no one else knows about Becky. Tells her that Becky's soul is trapped and cannot move on, and that there is an island in the Hebrides called Connalough Point where they will be able to help her. Paul is naturally sceptical, but agrees to go to the island for the sake of their marriage.They discover Connalough Point is a very secretive place, and every precaution is taken to ensure no one outside learns about its existence. Here they meet Helen Blake, Silas's wife, and the dour MacLeod brothers. They also meet the soul fixer...But slowly they discover the shocking secrets of Connalough Point, the real reasons they are there. With events spiralling down into deceit, terror and murder, it quickly becomes not only a battle for survival, but the steep path to a devastating truth...With his acknowledged individual storytelling expertise, D. M. Mitchell pens yet another taught psychological thriller with a difference that twists and turns to its deliciously devious and unexpected conclusion.