Book description
As Queen Victoria’s reign reaches its end, Grace Farringdon dreams of
polar explorations and of escape from her stifling home with her
protective parents and eccentric, agoraphobic sister.
But when Grace secretly applies to Candlin, a women’s college filled
with intelligent, like-minded women, she finally feels her ambitions
beginning to be take shape. There she forms an Antarctic Exploration
Society with the gregarious suffragette Locke, the reserved and studious
Hooper and the strange, enigmatic Parr, and before long the group are
defying their times and their families by climbing the peaks of
Snowdonia and planning an ambitious trip to the perilous Alps.
Fifteen years later, trapped in her Dulwich home, Grace is haunted by
the terrible events that took place out on the mountains. She is the
society’s only survivor and for years people have demanded the truth of
what happened, the group’s horrible legacy a millstone around her neck.
Now, as the eve of the Second World War approaches, Grace is finally
ready to remember and to confess . . .
From one of the finest writers of the psychological thriller comes this
beautifully woven, deeply unsettling historical novel; powerfully
atmospheric, shivering with menace and reminiscent of the very best of
Sarah Waters. ‘Jones's fourth novel is an atmospheric, beautifully
controlled account of intense female friendship and ambition. And it's
also a gripping psychological thriller - the missing link, were one ever
inclined to hunt for it, between Rosamund Lehmann's Dusty Answer and Joe
Simpson's Touching the Void. Recommended’ Guardian
Susanna Jones grew up in Yorkshire and studied drama at London
University. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and
has won the CWA John Creasey Dagger, a Betty Trask Award and the John
Llewellyn Rhys Prize. She lives in Brighton.
Available from Susanna Jones: The Earthquake Bird, The Missing Person's
Guide to Love
