"Chilling childhood memories and family secrets are unearthed in this suspenseful, menacing psychological thriller centred on the daughter of a cruel con woman."
Set in small-town Montana between the protagonist’s troubled coming-of-age in the 1990s through to dealing with disturbing secrets in the present day, M.M. DeLuca’s The Night Side is a thoroughly gripping thriller of the twistiest order.
After escaping her manipulative, psychic scammer mom at the age of eighteen and forging a new life in England as an archaeologist with an uncanny, “impeccable instinct for finding the perfect dig spots”, Ruby is loath to return home when she learns her mother is missing, presumed dead. While there’s no body, all the signs point to suicide.
Though “her life history is so twisted it defies logic,” and she thinks it might be best to “leave it in the past where it belongs,” Ruby jumps on a plane, hoping her mother’s death will enable her to banish the past forever. Added to that, Ruby couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d found out about her mom from Aidan, the person she loved most in the world.
Alarmingly, though, on arrival Ruby’s childhood demons are quick to rise, and we understand why through a second chilling timeline that plays out through the 1990s. At this time, her mother’s mood would “turn on a dime” as she rattled through a catalogue of cruel scams, manipulating everyone around her to devastating, destructive extremes.
With a cast of intriguing characters, and a tsunami of revelations that’ll surely knock you for six sideways, The Night Side is pretty darn un-put-down-able.
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
| Other Genres: |
Twenty years of secrets. One deadly truth.
When Ruby was eighteen, she ran away from her home in Stoneybrook, Montana, and vowed she'd never return. Never return to life under the control of her manipulative mother, Ida, a self-styled medium and psychic scammer who made a career out of ruining people's lives. Never return to the small town where enemies lurk at every turn.
But now, twenty years later, Ruby is back. Her mother is missing, presumed dead, and Ruby reluctantly returns to a home filled with chilling memories and disturbing secrets to settle Ida's affairs. Did she really commit suicide by drowning, or is this another dark scheme? Ruby thought she knew all her mother's secrets, but the worst is yet to come . . .
The Night Side features in the following genres: Thriller and Suspense, Family Drama, Fiction
The Night Side is available in Hardback
The Night Side was written by M.M. DeLuca and published by Severn House an imprint of Canongate Books
The Night Side has 256 pages
£19.79
