Stone bruises / Simon Beckett.

'Somebody!' I half-sob and then, more quietly, 'Please.' The words seem absorbed by the afternoon heat, lost amongst the trees. In their aftermath, the silence descends again. I know then that I'm not going anywhere...Sean is on the run. We don't know why and we don't know from whom, but we do know he's abandoned his battered, blood-stained car in the middle of a sweltering, isolated, lonely part of rural France. Desperate to avoid the police, he takes to the hedgerows and country lanes only to be caught in the vicious jaws of a trap. Near unconscious from pain and loss of blood, he is freed and taken in by two women - the daughters of the owner of a rundown local farm with its ramshackle barn, blighted vineyard and the brooding lake. And it's then that Sean's problems really start...Superbly written, Stone Bruises is a classic nail-shredder of a thriller that holds you from the beginning and slowly, inexorably tightens its grip as the story unfurls and keeps you guessing until the unnerving and shocking final twist...