Their lives seemed perfect - until they let a stranger in . . .
Charles and Anne Turner are one of New York's golden couples: a famous novelist and his beautiful - and equally successful - wife. Only the cracks in their marriage are beginning to show . . .
Charles has rested on his reputation for more years than he cares to remember, having never again achieved the critical acclaim of his first seminal novel, decades before. Anne has been driven to increasingly desperate lengths to salvage her failing business.
Into their lives comes the mysterious Emma. Plain and poor, she has none of the Turner's advantages at her disposal - except one: talent. When Charles comes across his new secretary's partial manuscript he immediately recognises its potential. Somehow helping Emma finish her first novel becomes more important than starting his own.
But, as Charles begins to contemplate a horrifying betrayal of his young student, he has yet to realise just how thoroughly Emma's dark brooding tale of abuse and murder has been researched . . .
