GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS

With Hitchcockian flair, Megan Miranda shrewdly examines what becomes of the people at the centre of those rare, sensational news stories that capture the nation's attention. In a hauntingly atmospheric and gorgeously written page turner, here is an unnerving and extremely classy thriller. When Arden Maynor was six years old, she was swept away in a terrifying storm and went missing for days. Against all odds she was found alive, clinging to a storm drain. Fame followed, and so did fans, creeps and stalkers and as soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and left Widow Hills behind. 20 years later Olivia as she is now known is plagued by night terrors. She often finds herself out of bed in the middle of the night, sometimes streets away from her home. Then one evening she jolts awake in her yard, with the corpse of a man at her feet. She is about to become the centre of the story, once again. Sleepwalking in her garden, it seems the trauma of her past has resurfaced and her new life might be about to unravel. Her fears are compounded when someone in her grocery store calls her by her old name. Soon she starts to doubt everyone around her. Why is her neighbour Rick so keen to tidy the crime scene and why have her belongings been moved? Why is the sleep specialist she has been seeing so keen for her to take part in a sleep trial and why is the son of the dead man trying too hard to say he believes her? 323pp, paperback.