‘Blown away by this. The isolation and claustrophobia creeps off the page. Compelling, dark and complex. Extraordinary.’ –
Rachel Wolf, author of Five Nights and Sun Trap
Set on a remote Scottish island in 1949, the novel follows Euan, a young novelist, invited by his mentor, the legendary Malcolm Furnivall, to help complete his final masterpiece. But when Furnivall is found dead and Euan himself narrowly escapes an attempt on his life, the idyllic retreat turns sinister. As Euan hunts for the missing manuscript and Furnivall’s killer, the island reveals dark secrets—where past and present blur, ambition and grief intertwine, and legacy carries a curse of its own.
About The Author
Chris Barkley was appointed Writer in Residence by the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022. He won the Oxford University Kellogg Writing Competition in 2021, as well as the Bedford International Writing Prize. He has been shortlisted for the Cambridge Short Story Prize, and has had prose published in TSS, National Flash Fiction, Darling Axe and the Writers of the Future anthology. He lives in Edinburgh and teaches creative writing at Yale University.
The official release for the book is in September 2025
