The Coffin Path

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What to expect

**Longlisted for the HWA Gold Crown**

An eerie and compelling ghost story set on the dark wilds of the Yorkshire moors. For fans of The Witchfinder's Sister and The Silent Companions, this gothic tale will weave its way into your imagination and chill you to the bone.

'Spine-tingling... the scariest ghost story I have read in a long time' Barbara Erskine

'A wonderful, macabre evocation of a lost way of life' The Times

'Like something from Emily Bronte's nightmares' Andrew Taylor, author of The Ashes of London

Maybe you've heard tales about Scarcross Hall, the house on the old coffin path that winds from village to moor top. They say there's something up here, something evil.

Mercy Booth isn't afraid. The moors and Scarcross are her home and lifeblood. But, beneath her certainty, small things are beginning to trouble her. Three ancient coins missing from her father's study, the shadowy figure out by the gatepost, an unshakeable sense that someone is watching.

When a stranger appears seeking work, Mercy reluctantly takes him in. As their stories entwine, this man will change everything. She just can't see it yet.

What readers are saying about The Coffin Path:

'A fantastic eerie ghost story to settle down with on a winters night'

'Compelling and chilling, the slow build-up of tension had me completely on edge'

'I couldn't put it down. I felt I was there on the moors, being watched by the unseen'

(P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critics Review

  • A wonderfully sinister novel [with] a unique heroine… But the real star here is Clements’s beautiful, unsparing evocation of a bygone life on these unforgiving moors

    The Times
  • A striking combination of Brontëan romantic melodrama and gothic ghost story… Clements has written an eerily gripping novel in which the ghosts of the past haunt the present in more ways than one

    The Sunday Times
  • Intense, twisty drama… the atmospheric writing and the strong evocation of the landscape are terrific

    Daily Mail
  • Spine-tinglingthe scariest ghost story I have read in a long time. Beautifully written, fantastically atmospheric, it left me sleepless and in tears

    Barbara Erskine
  • Brooding and full of creeping menace

    Laura Purcell
  • The Coffin Path is the perfect ghost story: utterly absorbing, immersed in a world so completely authentic, peopled by men, women, children – and the beasts of a shepherding life – so completely flesh and blood that when the not-so-flesh arise, it’s *terrifying*. But not only that, it’s a beautifully wrought evocation of a world and a time that feels as if it’s just around the corner. If you like Michelle Paver, you’ll love this, but fans of Mantel will love it too – the language is a delight, the word-smithing pitch-perfect, and the narrative drive compelling. This is a book about passion and fear, blood and death and life and love and all the pieces from which life is wrought – if you read only one book this year, make it this one, you won’t regret it

    Manda Scott

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