The Drift

Some moves are meant to bring you closer to family. Others uncover the truth you were never meant to know.

After the death of her wife Issy, grief-stricken Annie Park uproots her London life to honour her final wish: raise Issy’s teenage children in the wilds of rural Cumbria, in the shadow of the imposing Colthwaite Fell—and under the sharp eyes of Issy’s secretive aristocratic parents.

At first, the village is merely unfamiliar. The rain is relentless, the locals are peculiar, and the pig with the half-melted face seems to haunt Annie’s every step. But when she discovers the graves of disfigured girls and disturbing photo albums hidden in the family’s ancestral home, it becomes clear that something deeply wrong lies at the heart of Colthwaite.

As Annie digs deeper—into a locked library, a missing relative, and Issy’s own past—her grief begins to warp into suspicion. What did Issy really want for them? And why does everyone insist she stop asking questions?

Haunting, lyrical and bristling with unease, The Drift is a novel of buried secrets, unquiet ghosts and a woman on the edge of unravelling truth—from the acclaimed author of This Fragile Earth and Okay Then That’s Great.