Stone Heart Deep

Paul Bassett Davies

A compelling and claustrophobic thriller

‘Once I’d started reading I could not put it down’ Iain Maitland

When burned-out investigative journalist Adam Budd’s estranged mother dies, he inherits her estate. This includes Stone Heart House, a huge, ramshackle mansion on a remote Scottish island. He visits the island to sort out her tangled affairs, and at first it seems like a charming haven of tranquillity. But after he witnesses a strange accident, he begins to develop suspicions about the inhabitants.

Why does everyone seem so eerily calm, even under stress? What is stopping Harriet, the lawyer helping him with his affairs, from leaving the island when she so clearly wants to? Is he making a big mistake by falling for her? And why have so many children gone missing?

Stone Heart Deep is a compelling and claustrophobic thriller with a remarkable twist, as if Iain Banks had rewritten The Wicker Man.

‘The moody loch, the tight-lipped suspicious islanders and the outsider create a retro mood that harks back to Robert Louis Stevenson or Walter Scott. This brooding chiller is a gripping adventure’ Camden New Journal

‘A rattling good thriller. Shades of The Wicker Man. Once I’d started reading I could not put it down’ Iain Maitland, author of Mr Todd’s Reckoning

‘There are echoes of The Wicker Man as the outsider tries to get a grip on what is happening around him. I was engrossed in this compelling tale’ Yorkshire Times

‘Compelling reading’ SF Crowsnest

‘Buckle your seat-belts and get ready for an exhilarating ride. This is a ripping yarn that builds to a nail-biting climax’ Charles Harris

Paperback: 288pp

Published: Lightning (September 2021)

ISBN: 9781785632655