Jolted from sleep by the ringing of the telephone, Imogen stumbles through the dark, empty house to answer it. At first, she can’t quite understand the man on the other end of the line. Surely he can’t honestly be accusing her of killing her husband, Ivor, who died in a car crash barely two months ago.

As the nights draw in, Imogen finds her home filling up with unexpected guests, who may be looking for more than simple festive cheer. Has someone been rifling through Ivor’s papers? Who left the half-drunk whiskey bottle beside his favourite chair? And why won’t that man stop phoning, insisting he can prove Imogen’s guilt ..?

‘Grandmother of British domestic noir Celia Fremlin deserves to be far better known, and a must for any crime-fiction lover’s Christmas wish list is The Long Shadow. Perceptive, funny and genuinely chilling.’ — The Guardian

‘Beautifully written and impeccably organised, Fremlin’s sly, subtly feminist take on the ghost story is a gem.’ — The Sunday Times, Thriller of the Month (November 2018)

‘Fremlin is perfect at exploiting the family dynamic and how the relationships between family members can be more confusing and convoluted than expected. This is another dark suspense novel from the menacing pen of Fremlin. As with Millar, it is wonderful to see this author who has an acute and precise eye for detail, back in print.’ — Crimesquad.com

‘Genuine chiller. Splendid suspense in brilliantly captured domestic setting.’  — Sunday Telegraph

‘The story unfolds with brilliant ingenuity, always on the verge of explanation, ever plausibly plunging deeper…yet any hint of the mechanical is washed right away by the sensitivity of the social and psychological dissection, frequently, too, sharply funny.’ — The Times