‘Gripping . . . Just brilliant’ Clare Mackintosh
‘Emotionally compelling’ Chris Brookmyre
THERE’S A FINE LINE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD . . .
‘Big George’ McLaughlin is a bad person. He’s snatched a little girl from her family, and he’s not planning on giving her back.
But George is also inherently good. He loves this little girl and has kidnapped her with pure intentions. She’s his daughter and he wouldn’t do a thing to hurt her.
So when being together feels so right, why is it so terribly wrong?
Is there such a thing as good bad love?
From the Richard & Judy Book Club and international bestselling author of The Guilty One comes a suspenseful, gritty and emotionally charged journey of an estranged father and daughter, exploring the strength of family ties and our huge capacity for forgiveness.
Praise for Lisa Ballantyne:
‘Thought-provoking, brave, challenging, compulsive’ Rosamund Lupton
‘A page-turner with real emotional depth’ Daily Express
‘Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling’ Lee Child
‘Moving, insightful’ Guardian
‘Will touch your heart, even as it leaves you unsettled’ Hallie Ephron
‘Grips like a vice’ Daily Mail
‘Thought-provoking and clever’ Gilly Macmillan
‘Tense’ Sunday Times
‘A tense and moving story that I will remember for a long time’ Rachel Abbott
‘I couldn’t get this book out of my head. It kept me up all night and guessing the whole way through. I loved it’ Jenny Colgan
‘Emotionally compelling’ Chris Brookmyre
THERE’S A FINE LINE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD . . .
‘Big George’ McLaughlin is a bad person. He’s snatched a little girl from her family, and he’s not planning on giving her back.
But George is also inherently good. He loves this little girl and has kidnapped her with pure intentions. She’s his daughter and he wouldn’t do a thing to hurt her.
So when being together feels so right, why is it so terribly wrong?
Is there such a thing as good bad love?
From the Richard & Judy Book Club and international bestselling author of The Guilty One comes a suspenseful, gritty and emotionally charged journey of an estranged father and daughter, exploring the strength of family ties and our huge capacity for forgiveness.
Praise for Lisa Ballantyne:
‘Thought-provoking, brave, challenging, compulsive’ Rosamund Lupton
‘A page-turner with real emotional depth’ Daily Express
‘Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling’ Lee Child
‘Moving, insightful’ Guardian
‘Will touch your heart, even as it leaves you unsettled’ Hallie Ephron
‘Grips like a vice’ Daily Mail
‘Thought-provoking and clever’ Gilly Macmillan
‘Tense’ Sunday Times
‘A tense and moving story that I will remember for a long time’ Rachel Abbott
‘I couldn’t get this book out of my head. It kept me up all night and guessing the whole way through. I loved it’ Jenny Colgan
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Reviews
This is a subject that grips the attention like a vice
Thought provoking, brave and challenging, this book is an unsettling and compulsive read
Lisa Ballantyne has written a first novel that is both moving and suspenseful; richly detailed, yet with the eerie simplicity of a parable
Flitting effortlessly between past and present, this is a suspenseful, gritty and emotionally charged journey of an estranged father and daughter, exploring the strength of family ties and our huge capacity for forgiveness.
Ballantyne weaves a fine tale of family drama, dark secrets, and the past's effect on the present...heart-wrenching.
Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling, and highly recommended: a terrific debut from an author to watch
Ballantyne has a natural gift for storytelling and the central narrative here is well-developed and fast-moving. She evidently cares for her principal characters, and, because she does so, readers are likely to do likewise.
One of the most readable, emotionally intense novels of the year, and a debut one at that. Lisa Ballantyne pulls off the key writer's trick of getting us to care about the characters; by the end of the first chapter, you will be comprehensively on the hook
[a] moving, insightful debut . . . It's easy to see why this caused such a stir at Frankfurt last year. If it isn't this year's Before I Go To Sleep, I'll eat my laptop
A sweet novel of love, redemption, and loss that chronicles one family's struggle with a difficult past.