Description

FROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN’S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND

Frances Jellico is dying. A man who calls himself the vicar visits, hoping to extract a deathbed confession. He wants to know what really happened that fateful summer of 1969, when Frances – tasked with surveying a dilapidated country house – first set eyes on the glamorous bohemian couple, Cara and Peter. She recalls the relationship they forged through sweltering days, lavish dinners and elaborate lies, and the Judas hole through which she would spy on the couple.

Were the signs there right from the beginning?
Or was it impossible to avoid the crime that split their lives open like rotten fruit?

‘Compulsive … A latter-day Daphne du Maurier’ THE TIMES
‘Clever, compelling … A rewarding slow burn’ PAULA HAWKINS
‘Bewitching, otherworldly … full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller’ SCOTSMAN
‘Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy’ MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘A darkly smouldering, superior psychological thriller’ DAILY MAIL

Publisher Review

Sumptuous and sinister with gothic hints, this is a compelling tale of blurred friendships * Prima * Beautifully written, with echoes of Barbara Vine and Daphne du Maurier * Andrew Taylor, Spectator Books of the Year 2018 * Elegant, atmospheric, vivid * The Big Issue * Cannily releasing clues on the way to an explosive finale . . . The lush setting and remarkable characters make for an immersive mystery * Publishers Weekly * Full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller * Belfast Telegraph * With shades of Brideshead and Manderley, Claire Fuller's atmospheric third novel plays a satisfyingly unpredictable game with reader expectations. Prepare to be meticulously unsettled and horribly enthralled * Country Life * Naturally engaging and elegantly written. Fuller is an amply gifted storyteller * Spectator * Loneliness, guilt and atonement are at the heart of the atmospheric Bitter Orange * Good Housekeeping * Full of complex characters and narrative richness * The Sunday Times Culture * A smart creation from a skilled writer: a heady psychological novel that builds its layers carefully to allow gradual revelations and stomach-churning surprises * Financial Times * Multi-layered, lush, twisty and brilliantly clever * The Sunday Mirror * Fuller is a master at summoning the atmosphere of a heady, hot summer that thrums with tension * Stylist * An exquisite and skilfully written novel, which worms its way under your skin while Frances's loneliness seeps off every page * Red * Dark, beautifully written. It reminds me very much of Ian McEwan's Atonement, with similar slow-build tension and claustrophobic atmosphere * The Pool * A rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension * Ruth Ware * A compulsive page-turner. Fuller creates an atmosphere of simmering menace with all the assurance of a latter-day Daphne du Maurier * The Times * Bewitching, otherworldly . . . full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller. * Scotsman * Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy * Mail on Sunday * Bitter Orange reads like an assured, old-school, du Maurieresque classic. It's an atmospheric page-turner that speeds us towards a bloody climax of shocks and surprises * Irish Times * A sinister story that considers the terrifying lengths people will go to escape their pasts. In the vein of Shirley Jackson's bone-chilling The Haunting of Hill House, Fuller's disturbing novel will entrap readers in its twisty narrative, leaving them to reckon with what is real and what is unreal. An intoxicating, unsettling masterpiece. * Kirkus * A delicate and disturbing read, alive with love, lust, envy and guilt * S Magazine * Atmospheric. Rich, clever and very readable. * Amanda Craig, Telegraph * It is rare for me to put down a novel and then immediately consider rereading it to see what cleverness I might have missed. This time, though, I am tempted. * Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times * This darkly smouldering, desperately sad, superior psychological thriller contains shades of Zoe Heller's Notes On A Scandal * Daily Mail * A rich and hypnotic read * Tatler * Heady, claustrophobic . . . makes for perfect heatwave reading. Echoes Penelope Lively's Booker-winning Moon Tiger, Anita Brookner's Look At Me, and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger * Independent * As haunting as tuberose and delicate as a scalpel * Laline Paull * A twisty, thorny, darkly atmospheric page turner about loneliness and belonging * Gabriel Tallent, author of My Absolute Darling * A stealthy shocker about thwarted desire. A sinister, slow-burn tale that saves its most heart-wrenching revelation for last * Metro * Reminds me of JL Carr's A Month in the Country, Daphne Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, and Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Incredibly atmospheric, vivid, and intriguing. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't reading a forgotten classic. * Emma Healey * Rich and compelling. Fuller is an accomplished writer * Observer *