Explosive and timely, beautiful and provocative, DEAR DARLING cuts to the heart of a conversation – and gives a woman her voice.

"Dear Darling..."

So begins the letter from Daniel Prior. The man Lauren had sex with when she was fourteen years old. The man she fell in love with, long before conversations about power and consent and #MeToo. The man she locked away in the deepest part of her memory.

Eighteen years later, the world is changed, and Lauren, a wife and mother, is changed too. But now, fresh out of prison, Daniel wants to meet.

And Lauren must finally confront the electricity and devastation of the man who's loved and harmed her more deeply than anyone in her life…

From bold new voice Ella King, Dear Darling cuts to the heart of some of the most complex issues of our ag

EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS SECRETS . . . ‘A beautiful, bewitching, unsettling and unputdownable dream of a book’ LISA JEWELL ‘A blistering thriller’ NEW YORK TIMES ____________________________________________________________ Seventeen-year-old Lily has a loving, normal family. So why does it suddenly feel like secrets are stirring? Like Mama is about to crack? As a storm of memories builds over one humid summer, Lily must recast everything. What if her house isn’t a home – but a prison? What if her mother isn’t a protector – but a monster . . . From hot new talent, Ella King, comes an unforgettable story about a family gone bad . . . _________________________________________________________________ ‘A powerful, hard-hitting and exquisitely written novel’ CLARE MACKINTOSH ‘Paring-knife sharp . . . Mama is a terrifying, masterful creation’ ABIGAIL DEAN ‘This is a cracker’ HARRIET TYCE ‘Disturbing, poignant and memorable all at once – an exploration of a very dark relationship between a daughter and her mother’ OBSERVER ‘A riveting novel exploring how family ties can both make us and break us’ RED ‘Beautiful, disturbing, impossible to put down. Bad Fruit heralds a seriously impressive new talent in Ella King’ CHRIS WHITAKER ‘Masterful in its evocation of the complexity of mother-daughter relationships . . . a writer to watch’ HARPER’S BAZAAR