** AN OBSERVER BEST BOOK OF YEAR **''Ward''s most complex and brilliant book yet'' - GUARDIAN''A darkly moving and heartfelt exploration of obsession'' - DAILY EXPRESSWriters are monsters. We eat everything we see...In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the shadowy figure of the Daggerman, who stalked their New England town. And it is the story of Sky, Wilder''s one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir to turn it into a lurid bestselling novel, then died without ever explaining why.This book is Wilder''s last chance for revenge. But as he writes, he begins to find notes written in Sky''s signature green ink, and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? And who is the dark-haired woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see? With his grip on reality slipping, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does...''So beautiful, so dark and so vivid'' - JENNIFER SAINT''A beautifully sinister tale of perception and identity'' - JOANNE HARRIS''Enthralling and heartbreaking'' - M.R. CAREY