Things Bright and Beautiful

When Bea Hanlon follows her preacher husband Max to a remote island in the Pacific, she soon sees that their mission will bring anything but salvation…Advent Island is a place beyond the reaches of Bea’s most fitful imaginings. It’s not just the rats and the hordes of mosquitos and the weevils in the powdered milk. Past the confines of their stuffy little house, amidst the damp and the dust and the sweltering heat, rumours are spreading of devil chasers who roam the island on the hunt for evil spirits. And then there are the noises from the church at night.Yet, to the amusement of the locals and the bafflement of her husband, Bea gradually adapts to life on the island. But with the dreadful events heralded by the arrival of an unexpected, wildly irritating and always-humming house guest, Advent Island becomes a hostile place once again. And before long, trapped in the jungle and in the growing fever of her husband’s insanity, Bea finds herself fighting for her freedom, and for her life.’I was sucked into its dark beating heart and wasn’t spat out until I’d turned the final page’ Claire Fuller”Dark, mysterious, beguiling, and beautifully written. It transported me to a different world’ Dolly Alderton’An excellent, blackly funny debut … a novel whose growing environmental and psychological horrors you can feel crawling across your skin’ Daily Mail