‘A secret?’ Elaine remarked with more than a hint of suspicion.

Ben nodded. ‘I made him a promise.’

Sitting here

On the other side of night

I owe everything

Good and bad

To my son

The boy who kept his promise

David Asha

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my son Elliot, who inspired this book with a question he asked while we were walking in the Roaches. I’d also like to thank my wife, Amy, and our other children Maya and Thomas, who’ve been very patient with my attempts to wrangle time and shape this story over the years.

Thanks go to my editors Loan Le at Simon & Schuster and Vicki Mellor at Pan Macmillan, whose thoughts were invaluable in helping develop The Other Side of Night. I’d also like to express my gratitude to my agents Hannah Sheppard and Helen Edwards for their feedback and enthusiasm for the book. Thanks to Fraser Crichton for his attention to detail during the copy-edit, and to Kate Tolley and the rest of the team at Pan Macmillan for their hard work and dedication.

Thanks to Tony Kent, brilliant thriller writer and barrister, for his advice on legal procedure and the language of the courtroom. I’m also grateful to storyteller extraordinaire Anthony Horowitz for reminding me of the power of perspective, and to thriller master James Patterson for all the lessons in keeping the pages turning. I’d also like to thank the many authors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and readers who’ve supported me over the years. This book is quite different from my previous work. I hope you like it. If you did, please review and share the book, but don’t give away any spoilers.

I’ve read a few books on time as part of my research for The Other Side of Night. If you’re interested in exploring the subject further, I can recommend Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time by Dean Buonomano as a great place to start. Interstellar is an excellent film that relies on block theory and challenges the notion of paradox.

Finally, I’d like to thank a man whose name I don’t know. We met in the woods outside the Hurst in Clunton and walked together for a while. You talked about the loss you’d recently suffered. Your wise words on grief inspired some of the reflections in this book. You honoured your daughter with them.

Praise for The Other Side of Night

‘A gripping and moving tale of loss and astounding sacrifice told so beautifully with a unique twist that was utterly satisfying’

– Imran Mahmood

‘A fantastic read. Mind-bending, gut-wrenchingly tense and one of the most original stories I’ve read in years. It was an absolute treat’

– John Marrs

‘Emotional, heart-warming and thought-provoking, one of those rare books that you’ll still be thinking about long after the last page’

– Jenny Blackhurst

‘Hold on to your sanity. This psychological thriller will keep you wondering which strange details are real and which emerge from the minds of the characters. The lonely boy, the disgraced police officer, the bizarre scientist – each has a dark secret, and a dark problem to solve. Imaginative and thought-provoking, fiction at its best’