Macushla O'Loan

When Alma Gane moves in with her daughter Edna, son-in-law Jack and grand-daughter Betty, Edna realises it is more than just space her mother has taken from their home.

Alma spies on the street and snoops on the neighbours and Edna becomes alarmed by the old woman's obsession with the invalid man and his Greek wife across the road.

But more concerning is the change in her 12-year-old daughter as Betty grows defiant and spiteful.

When Betty goes missing, even the police assume she has run away after committing a despicable prank on a classmate.

No one suspects the malice that lurks in the family's own street.

Shifting from the past to the present, the filial thread interweaves the events of this multigenerational family into a menacing pattern of unease.

"Macushla O'Loan's first novel is noir fiction at its best. Chilling and unexpected, it rips away the thin veneer of normality from suburban life and exposes the dark side of human nature in a gripping narrative in which ordinary things seem strangely threatening."

Mayfair News