Clare Erskine thought it was a wonderful stroke of luck that her 19 year old daughter, Sarah, was engaged to marry an accountant – an accountant who liked accountancy. Sarah, would live happily ever after and Clare pull ahead in the unspoken race that mothers run.

But beneath the surface of suburban tranquillity, Fremlin again tells a story of chilling suspense. With her customary wit, irony and deadly accuracy, the Edgar-winning author of The Hours Before Dawn and The Jealous One details the life of a possessive mother and her twisted son, and the horror that can be swept up with the crumbs after tea.

‘Brilliant…yet another of Miss Fremlin’s triumphs.’ – London Times

‘Fremlin, masterly delineator of suburban sin and distiller of eerie tensions from commonplace events, achieves a formidable triumph in this new thriller…suspense, expertly screwed up in the final section…Tragic-yet wildly comic-this novel is a must for addicts of the genre.’ – The Scotsman

‘Fremlin calmly proceeds to grind our nerves to shreds as she slowly reveals the repulsive truth.  The Fremlin grip is relentless.  Even the wry humour – of which there is plenty – serves to point-up the suspense.’ – The Sun

‘[Possession] is told with a continuing wealth of psychological observation…in all she gives us a long cold look into a fearful world, the world of the women.’ – Timescrime

‘Fremlin exercises one of the most considerable talents in the field of suspense fiction to create unholy terror out of sunshine and soapsuds.’ – Chicago Tribune

‘Another one of those chilling exercises in horror in a deceptively quiet English domestic setting at which Celia Fremlin is so expert. It builds to a totally unexpected climax.’ – Publishers Weekly