A Sleep and a Forgetting (Hardcover)

MORTAL REMAINS: 'I loved this very Goddardesque mystery...Definitely an author to watch' Sarah Broadhurst, The Bookseller 'No-one can accuse Gregory Hall of depriving readers of excitement in his riveting new novel...Nothing is as it seems in this compelling tale' Oxford Mail THE DARK BACKWARD: 'A highly impressive debut...wonderfully atmospheric with a hazy mist of violence and regret reminiscent of Barbara Vine' Sunday Times 'A splendid pacy blend of romance, thriller and scientific mystery with a compellingly intricate plot' Robert Goddard

If you thought Dick Francis was the master of scintillating first paragraphs, wait until you read this one. Hall plunges straight into the action and never lets his readers' attention falter. Catriona Turville, an academic specializing in the Romantic poets, is knocked out of her well-ordered stride on receiving a suicide letter from sister Flora. The sisters have always been close despite their widely differing personalities. While stuffy, London-dwelling Catriona allows nothing to come between her and the classics, Flora has lived a life of apparent rural contentment in the Cotswolds with her husband and daughter. On receiving the suicide note, a stunned Catriona dashes off to the Cotswolds only to find no trace of Flora either alive or dead. That is when the complex plot really begins to develop. The two sisters have a shared secret on which the mystery hinges. Catriona has spent most of her adult life trying to forget that childhood experience but now, with Flora missing, the past will not remain buried. Hall shows throughout why he has built a strong reputation as one of our most innovative thriller writers. This is a worthy follow-up to The Dark Backward, which reached the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger shortlist. As in that book he has created a spooky story around characters who are not always what they seem. His sense of place and of English sensibilities are especially acute, and his powers of description are second to none in creating atmosphere. The story is a gripping one although Hall's style will not be to everyone's taste. He is fond of long, convoluted sentences and some of the dialogue comes across as dated - the sort of snobspeak that surely never survived the 1930s. If you can live with those drawbacks, the story will hold you in thrall. This is good, powerful fiction with a literary edge. (Kirkus UK)

A suicide letter from a young woman with apparently everything to live for plunges her sister into an investigation which reveals the shared past they had worked so hard to conceal. In this complex mystery which will delight all fans of Robert Goddard, the horrors of the past disrupt the lives of two sisters - and of everyone who is close to them. Catriona is a well-respected academic, specialising in the Romantic Poets at a prestigious London college. Everything revolves around her work, leaving no space for personal relationships. She's the exact opposite of her sister Flora, who enjoys a rural existence in the Cotswolds with her scientist husband and teenage daughter. Then Catriona receives Flora's suicide letter. Catriona races to the picturesque village, but there is no body to be found. Has Flora really killed herself, or is this an excuse to vanish -and if so, why? The sisters have spent their adult lives trying to bury what happened in their childhood, but Catriona must now face a very different kind of oblivion before the truth comes out.