While on her daily walk with her dog in the woods near her home, Vesta comes across a chilling handwritten note. Her name was Magda.

Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body.

Shaky even on her best days, Vesta is also alone, and new to the area, having moved here after the death of her husband. Her brooding about the note grows quickly into a full-blown obsession: who was Magda and how did she meet her fate?

From the Booker-shortlisted author of Eileen comes this razor-sharp, chilling and darkly hilarious novel about the stories we tell ourselves and how we strive to obscure the truth. 

'This is a story about what might happen when a woman takes charge... A glorious visceral mystery' The Times

'Routinely hailed as one of the most exciting young American authors working today' Guardian

'A new kind of murder mystery' New Yorker

'Dark, devious' Observer

'A fine line between shocking realism and the absurd' New Statesman

'A brilliant off-kilter detective story' Evening Standard

'A beautiful novel' Sunday Times