Fiddleback

Ruth is slowly recovering from her violent relationship with ex-partner Matt when her gay brother Alex disappears. She and Alex have always been close, so why has he vanished without telling her? Seriously worried, Ruth travels to Greenwell where Alex is a teacher at the local school only for the headmaster to be leeringly uncooperative. Then the landlord of Alex's flat sends along his obstructive son to search it while refusing Ruth access, and when she reports her brother's disappearance to the police they are openly hostile. There are other mysterious happenings - a hanged body she discovers in a railway waiting room disappears when the police arrive and a fiddleback spider that lives in Alex's block of flats is suddenly no longer there - or is it? Most troubling of all to Ruth is when some children inform her that Alex was seen in conversation with 'the grey man' - who according to local legend kills anyone who looks at his face. As Ruth struggles to cope with all these events, the heart-stopping appearance of Matt in Greenwell makes her wonder if there is a sinister conspiracy afoot. J M Morris has written a compelling novel that never lets up on the tension as he lures you to the macabre centre of his characters' lives. This is an assured, cryptic and satisfying page-turner. (Kirkus UK)