The Key

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

'Riveting' Lesley Pearse on The Letter. 'Gripping' Good Housekeeping on The Secret.

From Kathryn Hughes, the #1 bestselling author of The Letter and The Secret, comes a powerful, shocking, heartbreaking story set to get everyone talking in spring 2018.

1956
It's Ellen Crosby's first day at work as a student nurse at Fairhaven County Lunatic Asylum. When she meets Amy Sullivan, a young woman committed for allegedly attempting to drown herself and her stepsister, and Dr Stephen Lambourn, a pioneering physician keen to try out the various 'cures' available for mental illness, little does Ellen know that a choice she will make is to change all their lives irrevocably...

Present day
Under the cover of darkness, a young woman, Kate, picks her way through the brambles to the abandoned Fairhaven Asylum. A vast building with over six miles of corridors, the asylum still houses the metal-framed beds, rusty instruments and infamous padded cells used before it closed its doors for the last time. In an old wardrobe, Kate discovers a suitcase belonging to a female patient who was admitted to the asylum in 1956. The shocking contents of the suitcase lead Kate to unravel a forgotten story of tragedy, lost love and an old wrong that only Kate may have the power to put right.

Critics Review

  • A heartbreakingly powerful read

    The Sun
  • Praise for Kathryn Hughes’ international bestsellers

  • Autumnal Sunday afternoons were invented solely to read heart-tugging novels like this

    Red
  • This moving love story had everyone talking . . . Get set to be hooked

    Look
  • A beautiful story . . . I didn’t want to put it down

    Reviewed by Fran
  • You will find it hard to put down. I cried buckets of tears reading it

    Books With Wine And Chocolate

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.