‘Disturbance’ is a new book from local author, Marianne Kavanaugh, which is published in hardback this week.

Sara lives with her husband Mike, a successful entrepreneur, and their two sons in the Old Rectory, a large house hidden behind tall hedges in a small village. Mike, perceived by his friends to be the doting father and loving husband, is currently working at home and is becoming increasingly angry and irritable. Sara feels isolated and lonely.

When eighteen-year-old Katie, a student living in the village, rings the doorbell and offers to walkSara’s dog, a new friendship develops. Katie is young and full of energy, the perfect antidote to Sara’sbullying husband. Katie encourages her to get out and about and meet the neighbours. When a shocking accident happens in the house, and Mike’s sister arrives from Australia and begins asking awkward questions, disturbing truths emerge.

Nothing is quite what it seems. Innocence and guilt are not clear cut. This is a novel about the secrets within a marriage and relationships under so much pressure they crack. It’s an extraordinary psychological drama about fragility and revenge with a twist that you simply don’t see coming.

‘So subtly done, and well achieved, and horrifyingly, hilariously believable – just the blackest ofdelights.’ JENN ASHWORTH, author of Fell

‘A massively enjoyable book – creepy, funny, surprising and absolutely unputdownable… Myonly wish is that I hadn’t finished it so quickly.’ DAISY WAUGH

‘There’s such a powerful mood of unease about Disturbance. I read through my fingers, prayingmy suspicions weren’t true…’ LOUISE CANDLISH, author of Our House

‘A dark, disturbing slow burn of a novel that I consumed with an increasing and justified sense of foreboding.’ FANNY BLAKE

‘With a delicious sense of creeping menace, an uncertainty about where truth lies and with mounting claustrophobic tension, Marianne Kavangah’s novel offers a pleasingly dark taleon the much-vaunted attractions of English village life.’ STELLA DUFFY

Disturbance by Marianne Kavanagh
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 21st March 2019,  Hardback £18.99