Gregory & Company

Bauer, Belinda

Blacklands

Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body.

Every day after school and at weekends, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven digs to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged 11 and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery.

Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her.

Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it.

So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer.

A game that will have more terrifying consequences than Stephen could ever imagine…

Winner of the 2010 CWA Gold Dagger at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards

	Click here for rights & sales information
	Click here to read reviews
	Click here to read related articles
	Click here to view all titles by this author