Tarnished

Peg always felt a little blurred, a little lacking in definition. Her mother died when she was six, her father simply disappeared, and she was brought up by her grandparents and her obese, bedridden aunt. But, despite all this, she never developed the habit of asking questions.

At least, not until she met Loz, her straight-talking, psychotherapeutically literate girlfriend, who urges her to confront her demons.

But as the skeletons come tumbling out of the family closet and the full horror of the past begins to reveal itself, Peg starts to wonder whether her youthful lack of curiosity might not have been a good thing. A very good thing indeed…

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‘You’d be crazy not to read this book. Julia Crouch is an absolutely brilliant writer, sharp and compassionate and with a great gift for characterisation and comedy… The plot twists and turns until, as in the best whodunnits, almost everyone seems a possible suspect. A dramatic finale follows. Julia Crouch’s low-key, intelligent, determinedly unprurient style is a welcome relief in a genre where the opposite dominates.’
Daily Mail

‘This slow-burning psychological thriller is truly chilling and races to a creepy conclusion that’s so genuinely scary you won’t want to read it alone in the house’.
Sunday Mirror

‘Skilfully written and cleverly structured (Crouch is a meticulous plotter), Tarnished is a memorably disquieting story that twists brilliantly from its humdrum, kitchen-sink opening to a chilling, destructive ending’.
Telegraph

‘Twisty, unsettling but unforgettable.’
Cosmopolitan