The Ophelia Girls

'A vivid, sensuous novel . . .

I can't recommend it enough' - Anna Bailey, bestselling author of Tall Bones'A potent blend of art, beauty, awakening desire and mortality that seduces the reader' Daily MailSummer, 1973. Teenage Ruth and her four friends spend the scorching summer days in the river, recreating tableaus of the drowning Ophelia and other tragic heroines. But as autumn draws nearer, real tragedy has found them.

Summer, 1997. Ruth returns to her childhood home with her husband and three children, including her eldest daughter seventeen-year-old Maeve. However when Stuart, an old family friend comes to stay, the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter is pushed to its limit.

For Stuart's arrival is a reminder of a death in Ruth's past, while Maeve is feeling more alive than ever . . .

As the heat of the summer burns, how long can the family go before long-held secrets threaten to burst their banks and drown them all? 'A sinister, suspenseful page-turner that gripped me tightly and still hasn't fully let go' - Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson