A Chill Spring of Fear

Tricia has a full time job, but her daughter, Sophie expects her to enjoy ferrying her eighteen month old grandson about, as well as helping out with preparing meals and doing their housework. Tricia can't help but see her own life slipping away, and grasps at an opportunity to flee to France for a holiday. Sophie, stuck in an unhappy marriage to an egotistical and faithless husband, storms out of her house after a terrific row with him, hoping to find solace in a local pub. The next morning she wakes up in a strange hotel, having been drugged and raped. She manages to escape, then collapses and is taken to hospital. In desperation she makes even more demands on Tricia, who flies home as soon as she hears. The rapist's DNA proves to be that of a serial rapist and murderer. Terrified, mother, daughter and toddler fly to France. But the murderer discovers where they are and follows them. The often abrasive relationship between mother and daughter changes and shifts with each new threat to Sophie. Ordinary life and mundane realities contrast with sporadic episodes of immense danger. Accompanied by the enigmatic Detective Inspector Aurelia Cavendish and two French police officers as well as Tom, a friendly American that (to Sophie's disgust) her mother has developed a relationship, they drive through France. There are chaotic and bloody fights, twists, terrors and surprises.