‘I’ve been a fan of Amanda Jennings’ work for some time, but The Cliff House takes this hugely talented author to another level. It’s going to be one of the biggest, most talked about books of the summer and it’s a fabulous read.’
Louise Douglas
‘Amanda Jennings’ portrayal of time and place is exquisite. The Cliff House is chilling, stylish – and impossible to put down.’
Isabel Ashdown
‘Mesmerizing and nostalgic with a dark undercurrent that will leave you reeling.’
Susi Holliday
‘Wonderfully evocative and refreshingly different.’
Louise Voss
‘A haunting story with the moral ambiguity of du Maurier. Sea scented air filled with sunlight and menace… brilliant.’
Liz Fenwick
‘Hot, hazy and dangerous days against a stunning Cornish sky. A story of obsession that leaps to life from the page.’
Lucy Dawson
‘An addictive and insightful book about how grief can devastate and corrupt, full of the looming beauty of Cornwall.’
Katie Marsh
‘A heart-breaking, page-turning exploration of the pursuit and elusiveness of happiness.’
Julia Crouch
‘Unsettling, ominous and disturbingly brilliant – I couldn’t put it down.’
Laura Kemp
‘A beautiful, haunting portrait of obsession…Tamsyn and Edie are perfectly drawn, flawed yet painfully relatable characters who carry you across every page of The Cliff House, all the way to its heart-wrenching conclusion. I couldn’t put this book down.’
Beth Lewis
To Mum and Dad
With love as always.
‘If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.’
Maya Angelou
Contents
Cover
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Praise
Dedication
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
Prologue
You sit and watch them from the same place you always do.
I spy.
With my little eye.
The grass is flattened where your weight rests. A patch of earth revealed where your feet have kicked back and forth to pass the time. The purple foil of a chocolate bar you ate a week ago glints from where it nestles amid the sandy thatch of vegetation beside you. Seagulls cry mournfully, wheeling high in the sky above you, above the breaking waves and the reach of their salty spray, no more than specks.
The house rises up from the windswept cliffs like a chalk monolith. You imagine somebody, God perhaps, has carved it from a giant block of marble, smooth and white with bold lines and straight edges and expansive sheets of glass that reflect the sea and sky like cinema screens. It stands proud and defiant, alien in this coastal place, a place of weathered cottages, ruined mine shafts and precarious birds’ nests made of dried seaweed and discarded fishing twine. Its heart beats rhythmically. Drums your ears. Deafens you as you watch them shift like wraiths from one room to another, then outside onto the terrace, their clothes and hair ruffled by a playful onshore breeze.