Living in London in 1960, 15-year-old twins Duncan and Maisy are snatched away from their family home when their father commits their mother to a mental asylum. Seemingly dumped at the home of their forbidding paternal grandmother, they slowly adjust to their new circumstances. Sensitive and thoughtful Duncan strikes up an unlikely covert friendship with Grace Deville, the hermit who lives in a cottage in the forest. Plucky, confident Maisy starts to enjoy her new-found freedom, making friends and making eyes at visiting university student Alan.

But their world shatters when Duncan goes missing. When other young male teenage bodies are dug up, she fears the worst. Suspicious eyes turn to the woman in the wood as the prime suspect, but Maisy thinks Grace may be the only person who can discover the truth about Duncan’s vanishing.

The actions of the perpetrator are described in disturbingly graphic detail, but hope emerges as the search for the killer comes to a climax.

While revealing the dark, deviant and desperate parts of human nature, the novel also demonstrates a tender, compassionate aspect of humanity. Full of suspense, twists and heightened emotions, this page-turner had me enthralled. It makes me want to rush out and discover more of this writer’s 24 other novels.

Reviewed by Esther Perry

The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse