Book description
Sian, tired of nightmares in which she meets a grisly end, decides she
needs to get out more, so she joins an archaeological dig at Whitby
Abbey. What she finds is a mystery involving a long-hidden murder, a man
with big hands, a fragile manuscript in a bottle, and a rather
attractive dog called Hadrian. Faber's dazzling novella takes us up the
199 steps in Whitby that link the 21st century with the ruins of the
past. Equal and indissoluble parts thriller, romance, historical/ghost
story and meditation on the nature of sincerity, this is an ingenious
literary page-turner. Atmospheric photographs complement the text
beautifully. This book, like Henry James's The Turn of the Screw,
deploys a masterful sense of ambiguity, outstanding narrative power,
works on many levels and, as always with Faber's writing, is elegant,
thought-provoking, distinctive and compelling.
