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The Loney

On sale

8th October 2015

Price: £19.99

Costa First Novel Award, 2016

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Selected: Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781473633919

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WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD

THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016

‘Modern classics in this genre are rare, and instant ones even rarer; The Loney, however, looks as though it may be both’ Sunday Telegraph

If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney – that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest.

It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is.

I suppose I always knew that what happened there wouldn’t stay hidden for ever, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter how hard I tried to forget . . .

(P)2015 John Murray Press

Reviews

Stephen King
An amazing piece of fiction
Sunday Times
A masterful excursion into terror
Metro
An unforgettable addition to the ranks of the best British horror
Daily Mail
An eerie, disturbing read that doesn't let up until its surprise ending
Observer
This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill
Daily Express
A haunting and ambiguous novel that will keep you up at night
Guardian
Here is the masterpiece by which Hurley must enter the Guild of the Gothic: it pleases me to think of his name written on some parchment scroll, alongside those of Walpole, Du Maurier, Maturin and Jackson
Daily Telegraph
An extraordinarily haunted and haunting novel
New Statesman
A tale of suspense that sucks you in and pulls you under. As yarns go, it rips
Financial Times
A masterclass in spinning out tension
The Times, Books of the Year
Written with the skill of a poet
Sunday Express summer reads
A haunting exploration of religion, faith and family. Hurley's evocation of the landscape is bleak and beautiful, while his portrayal of a family slowly imploding is both perceptive and compelling