Books

Emily Foster has come to Cornwall to start again. In the old cottage at Gunwalloe, with the sea at her door and her past behind her, she hopes to rebuild a life shaken by betrayal. But the cottage is not quite the refuge she imagined. A lingering presence drifts through the house, bound to the land, the sea and an old injustice that reaches across the centuries.

At Penzance Museum, Emily, tasked with arranging an exhibition on witchcraft, reveals stories she cannot forget, of women swept away on a tide of suspicion by a world that feared what it could not control. And as the boundaries between her research and her home begin to blur, Emily realises the presence in her cottage is bound to the witch trials themselves, and to a tragedy within its walls that has been waiting for someone to listen.

Then there is Zac, the local carpenter, whose friendship offers Emily the possibility of a future she had stopped believing in. Yet Zac has secrets of his own, and as Tara, Emily’s assistant, grows resentful of Emily’s success, buried tensions begin to rise, with consequences none of them can escape.

As past and present converge, Emily must bring the truth to light and confront what can happen when the powerless are finally given a voice.

Some stories wait generations to be told, and some voices, once awakened, cannot be silenced again.

In a world where silence can be deadly, Lucy Harrison is trapped in a dangerous marriage, her every move watched by a man who hides his cruelty behind a charming facade. Planning her escape in secret, Lucy knows failure isn't an option. If Simon discovers the truth, her life could be in jeopardy. But when a mysterious inheritance offers her a lifeline, she seizes the chance to flee. As Lucy embarks on a journey to reclaim her life, hidden truths from the past emerge, intertwining with her present and forcing her to confront not only her own fears, but the ghosts of another woman whose story echoes her own. With Simon in pursuit, and the stakes higher than ever, Lucy must decide how far she’s willing to go to secure her freedom – before time runs out.