'Tall Bones brilliantly conjures up the oppressive claustrophobia of the small town... Extremely well written, fantastic.' HARRIET TYCE, author of Blood Orange

'A wonderfully haunting debut. Small-town intrigue, exquisitely drawn' JANE HARPER, author of The Dry and The Lost Man

When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again.

What happens next in Whistling Ridge is so much more than the story of a missing girl.

It's a story of secrets and shame, regrets and rage, love and lies. For Abi's disappearance cracks open the facade of the small town, peeling away the layers of its secret past. Even within Abi's own family there are questions to be asked - of Noah, the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of Jude, the shining younger sibling who hides his battle scars, of Dolly, her mother and Samuel, her father - both in thrall to the fiery preacher who holds the entire town in his grasp. Then there is Rat, the outsider, whose presence both unsettles and excites those around him.

Anything could happen in Whistling Ridge, this tinder box of small-town rage. All it will take is just one spark...the truth of what happened that night at the Tall Bones.
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'A dark and compulsive literary crime-drama about love, guilt, trauma, intolerance... an incredibly haunting book but a brilliant one too.' CultureFly Best Books of 2021

'A clever, twisting debut, about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite.' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine

'Anna Bailey's debut is irresistible, a compelling and nuanced psychological thriller suffused with small town prejudice and dark family secrets' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train

'Its portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible.' VAL McDERMID

'Smart and compassionate, full of poetry and rage and shy hopes and shredded dreams and missing girls and family secrets and the dark, shameful underbelly of small town life.' TAMMY COHEN, author of Stop at Nothing

'Tall Bones is as brutal, as bittersweet, as tender and as tense as first love itself.' EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths

'Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets - a stunning debut that delivers on every level.' RENEE KNIGHT, author of Disclaimer

'An intricate and compelling thriller, beautifully nuanced and wonderfully claustrophobic. Brilliant.'
SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep

'Chilling and compulsive. Tall Bones is a dazzling debut.' KATE HAMER, author of The Girl in the Red Coat