The new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the multi-award-winning writer Megan Abbott. 'Megan Abbott is the perfect storyteller-compelling, confounding and unconventional' VAL MCDERMID After the sudden death of their parents, the Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, inherit a ballet school and take over running it with Dara's husband Charlie. The sisters' connection is intense, forged by a glamorous but troubled family history. But after they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens their tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything. 'Megan Abbott is always a surprising writer, one with a liking for the raw and ambivalent side of life' KATE ATKINSON 'Megan Abbott is the 21st century's answer to Patricia Highsmith - she has that uncanny insight into the dark and treacherous depths of the human heart' DAN CHAON 'An extraordinary writer' NICK HORNBY 'One of the most exciting and original voices of her generation' LAURA LIPPMAN 'Abbott has become expert at revealing truths we thought we knew but didn't, delivered in prose that is by turns elegant and incantatory' DANIEL WOODRELL