Sarah Stovell’s darkly thrilling EXQUISITE has been shortlisted for the 2018 CrimeFest eDUNNIT Award, recognising the best ebooks in the crime genre. The novel follows the relationship between two women, a successful author and an aspiring writer, who meet at a writing retreat. What starts as a nurturing friendship soon becomes something more, and as infatuation turns to obsession things take a sinister and unexpected turn.
Bo Luxton has it all - a loving family, a beautiful home in the Lake District, and a clutch of bestselling books to her name.
Enter Alice Dark, an aspiring writer who is drifting through life, with a series of dead-end jobs and a freeloading boyfriend.
When they meet at a writers' retreat, the chemistry is instant, and a sinister relationship develops... Or does it?
Breathlessly pacey, taut and terrifying, EXQUISITE is a startlingly original and unbalancing psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
The winners will be announced at the CrimeFest Gala Awards Dinner hosted by Robert Thorogood, creator of DEATH IN PARADISE on Saturday 19th May.
Sarah Stovell was born in 1977 and spent most of her life in the Home Counties before a season working in a remote North Yorkshire youth hostel made her realise she was a northerner at heart. She now lives in Northumberland with her partner and two children and lectures in Creative Writing at Lincoln University.
She is the author of MOTHERNIGHT (Snowbooks, 2008) and THE NIGHT FLOWER (Tindal St Press, 2013).
Her first thriller novel, EXQUISITE, was published in June 2017.
Praise for EXQUISITE:
‘Satisfyingly complex. The prose is assured, the plot structure is tightly and effectively controlled, while the characterisation of the two protagonists is quite extraordinary. Tension oozes out of every page’ — The Lady
‘EXQUISITE is a powerful and assured debut thriller. Slickly claustrophobic and delicately wrought this arch story of obsessive forbidden love taken to the extreme will have you squirming in your seat even as you're driven to turn the next page. A must-read for 2017’ — Sarah Pinborough, author of BEHIND HER EYES
‘Cunningly constructed and gorgeously written, this is outstanding.’ – Sunday Express