This is an intelligent, daring, hard-edged and well-constructed story: tough and dark, but never too disturbing that you don’t want to read on and see if Kate’s experiences are real or the result of her damaged and grieving mind. This book has everything, it is fast paced, it has lots of twists and turns and it thickens with every chapter.

Though a little spiky and cold to begin with, you begin to warm to Kate as she goes through one terrible difficulty after another while always trying to do what she sees as the right thing. the narrator and her family are jewish, and are living in a predominantly italian american neighborhood in new jersey; she has to confront ethnic stereotypes quite a lot, including her own. How this book made me feel: this novel started creating tension from the first pages, and it kept the intrigue going all the way till the very last page. Sally is an alcoholic and her husband Paul is the go-between, trying to support Kate whilst trying to keep his wife sober. While packing up her mother's belongings she comes to believe there is something strange and terrifying happening in the house next door.

Just back at her late mother’s home after a stint in Aleppo, Kate’s eyes meet “a sight so horrifying it makes my toes curl: my reflection in the full-length mirror.

But something isn't quite right, and that's difficult to work out when you aren't exactly sure what is reality. The first half of the story is told through the narrative of Kate, interjected with memories of the past - from her childhood as well as her professional life, present day and an interview currently taking place at Herne Bay Police Station - an interview which lasts over several days. Billie is 16 going on 17 and dealing with all the typical things 16 year old girls deal with: boys, friends, family, finding yourself, fitting in, etc. At the time, Ellwood said her lead character was mostly inspired by the late Marie Colvin, an American journalist who worked for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her assassination in Syria in 2012. The increasing number of hours of this interview and the length of time she has been held in custody begin to build up a sense that possibly Kate is an unreliable narrator, that if the police are detaining her for so long she must be of some danger to someone - or herself.The reader has to keep up with changes in the chronology and the mixing up of the plot line about Kate's childhood, her experiences in Syria and her present day struggles with the loss of her mother and the strange goings on in the house. The novel was optioned pretty quickly for the big screen, the rights snatched up by Bill Kenwright Films from Marc Simonsson (SoloSon Media) on behalf of publisher Madeleine Milburn Ltd.

Nuala Ellwood takes us into the heart of the troubles that have been going on in Syria and she brings them to the forefront of your mind and in these sections of the novel, the writing is very powerful. The sister has anorexia, which never gets much resolve, or really even dived into except to say she looks horrible. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. The case of the Alperton Angels seized the public imagination when the cult came to a grisly end in a London suburb in late 2003. And the reference to bones also adds to the general metaphor throughout the novel of people being lost, found, disappearing, being buried within themselves and stripped of everything they thought they knew.Well that was nothing like I was expecting from the title, so very good, full of suspence and nail biting stuff, needed a box of tissues again, well done to both author and narrator. It is a complex tale, where you are drawn into the complexity of the characters, much like real life.