Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Some scars never heal . . . An addictive thriller from the author of the mega bestseller GONE GIRL.

When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to report on the crimes.

Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows - a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town.

As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims - a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

To say this is a terrific debut novel is really too mild ... [it is] a relentlessly creepy family saga. I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so, but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave - Stephen King

This is a stylish thriller about housewives who don't recognise their own desperations, while the reader recognises with fascinated clarity the nastiness and vacuity of life in an updated Stepford - Literary Review

It is a stunningly accomplished evocation of the oppressiveness of small-town life and is just as assured in depicting the gradually revealed psychological disorder that links Camille to both the killer and victims - Sunday Times

Compulsively disturbing and ... exciting - Time Out

[A] striking first novel ... a relentlessly dark tale, with some very disturbing characters, Camille among then, and it makes a powerful impact - Sunday Telegraph

The horror creeps up slowly, with Flynn misdirecting the reader until the shocking, dreadful and memorable double ending - Publisher's Weekly