Half Broken Things - Tapa dura

'Morag Joss's distinguished debut demonstrates an interesting setting, characters, both sympathetic and villainous, who are drawn with wit and perception, good writing and a plot which combines tension with credibility.' - P D JAMES 'Both literate and sardonic, filled with persuasive characters' - The Sunday Times 'Well written and well plotted, with a good Bath background' - Evening Standard 'A mesmerising psychological thriller set in beautiful surroundings, it suggests that Joss is the most persuasive chronicler of the city perhaps best known to some as Jane Austen's stamping ground' - The Times 'A literate and surprisingly lyrical read, as well as a mesmerising thriller' - What's On - Birmingham 'Morag Joss gets better with each book.' - Donna Leon on Fruitful Bodies

Jean, Michael and Steph are three reluctant loners who are getting by. Damaged and fearful of life, they cannot survive alone for much longer. A mixture of deceit, good luck and misfortune draw them together to Walden Manor, a secluded and gracious country house that promises sanctuary, freedom from failure and impending destitution. Out of an invented past they shape a beautiful present, full of hope and happiness. And beguiled by the gentle passing of time itself, all three of them, for the first time in their lives, lose their dread of the future. If their sense of safety is built on a delusion, does it matter? When the idyll is threatened, Jean, Michael and Steph discover that because their lives are now worth living they are also now worth preserving, although at appalling cost. In this stunning novel, which explores what happens when the 'have-nots' strive to become the 'haves', Morag Joss combines thought-provoking, sometimes chilling moral complexity with humane and compelling story-telling. Half Broken Things is a dark story, richly told, about love and our need for it: the damage done when we go too long without it, and what people might be driven to do in its name.