Bone Deep

Sandra Ireland is the author of the novels Beneath the Skin and Bone Deep. Before turning to fiction, she worked as a journalist. Born in Yorkshire, England, she spent many years in Limerick, Ireland, and now lives near Edinburgh.

A twisty and propulsive read, this dark psychological thriller of sibling rivalry, love, betrayal, and the dire consequences of family fallout brilliantly plays on our fears of loneliness and abandonment, harkening to the modern gothic bestsellers by Ruth Ware and Liz Nugent. Is a story ever just a story? Mac, a retired academic and writer, is working on a new collection of folktales, inspired by local legends, and at the insistence of her only child, Arthur, she hires a young assistant, Lucie, to live in a cottage on her property and help her transcribe them. What Arthur doesn't know is that his mother is determined to keep the secrets of her past from ever being discovered. And what Mac doesn't know is that Lucie has a few complicated secrets of her own. The creaking presence of an ancient water mill next to Mac's property that used to grind wheat into flour serves as an eerie counterpoint for these two women as they circle warily around each other, haunted by the local legend of two long-dead sisters, ready to point accusing fingers from the pages of history. This atmospheric page turner evocatively gives voice to the question: What happens when you fall in love with the wrong person?