Product Description
Plagued by a strange malady, Belle is an affluent, pill-addicted desperate housewife going through the motions of doing up her huge new London house. Her workaholic husband is away for months at a time. Dangerously idle since leaving her job in an art gallery, she invites the alluring Tina, a young local waitress whom she barely knows, to become her lodger. But Tina's menacing boyfriend Carl is never far behind...
Haunted by fragments of troubling history and at a loss with her current existence, Belle becomes darkly enmeshed with the younger woman. Before long the two women are living off each other's reflections. The lines between Tina and Belle, fantasy and reality, truth and deception, watcher and watched, dissolve and a chilling, erotic game of blurring psyches ensues.
From the Inside Flap
cough. I am rooted to the upstairs landing; sensing, knowing it is her.
Above me, a light bulb hums; the house cocks its hostile ear.
From the Back Cover
disturbing, highly sophisticated debut' Guardian
`An American Psycho for women' Independent
`An astonishingly accomplished first novel, Maria Alvarez has created a
taut, claustrophobic thriller' Metro
`At once taut and lush, Maria Alvarez's debut refuses to let its readers
off lightly. It seduces, toys, arouses and eventually leaves you happily
spent' Will Self
