They thought they’d found their dream home. They were wrong. 2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain – a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn’t resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right – and as the problems mount up, Max starts to doubt her relationship as well as her decision. Is Seb all he seems to be? And why are the neighbours so evasive about the house’s previous owner? 1994. Cookie and his parents have been forced by his dad’s gambling debts to move into the attic room of a big old house, as lodgers. Tensions run high between them and their elderly landlady, and there’s something odd about the place that Cookie can’t quite put his finger on… 1843. Horatio built this house for his beloved wife, who then died in mysterious circumstances. After a second death on the premises, both his servants and the locals are starting to talk. Horatio’s grief is tinged with shame and guilt. What is he hiding? And will the house ever be free of his legacy? THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is a tense, taut, beautifully crafted novel about the treachery of secrets and the many ways the past can echo into the present, from the acclaimed author of THE SILENCE.

Longlisted for the New Blood Dagger Award 2021 'A darkly gripping and addictive read. I tore through it in a few days' ESTHER FREUD 'Deeply engrossing ... an exquisite literary thriller' PHILIPPA EAST 'Emotionally wrenching' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'Impossible to put down' TREVOR WOOD A missing woman 30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of a Sydney summer, the Greens' next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared without a trace. A cold case reopened In 1997, in a basement flat in Hackney, Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father is under suspicion of Mandy's murder. A devastating secret How well does Isla know her father? Is he capable of doing something terrible? And is there another secret in their community - a conspiracy of silence which stretches deep into Australia's past? ------------------------------ 'An atmospheric, convincing portrayal of the way that the decisions we make, both individually and collectively, reverberate down the years' GUARDIAN 'Allott uses the scandal of Australia's stolen children to devastating effect in this memorable debut' SUNDAY TIMES 'A riveting mystery, beautifully unwound. The Silence excavates dark, decades-old secrets buried in human hearts, in families and in nations. I read it in one weekend' ERIN KELLY 'An impressive and beautifully written, Australian-set debut with the devastating subject of the Stolen Generation at its core' FIONA MITCHELL 'Tense, atmospheric and brilliantly paced. The Silence is fraught with disturbing secrets and powerful emotions. I loved it' FRANCESCA JAKOBI 'A brooding, suspenseful debut' SUNDAY MIRROR 'A suspenseful, beautifully crafted debut for fans of Celeste Ng and Jane Harper' TELEGRAPH AUSTRALIA 'Intricate and suspenseful... [a] stellar debut' NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS

'A riveting mystery, beautifully unwound. The Silence excavates dark, decades-old secrets buried in human hearts, in families and in nations. I read it in one weekend' ERIN KELLY 'A poignant literary mystery, impossible to put down.' TREVOR WOOD It is 1997, and in a basement flat in Hackney Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father, Joe, phoning from Sydney. 30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens' next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared. Joe claims he thought she had gone to start a new life; but now Mandy's family is trying to reconnect, and there is no trace of her. Isla's father was allegedly the last person to see her alive, and he's under suspicion of murder. Back home in Sydney, Isla's search for the truth takes her back to 1967, when two couples lived side by side on a quiet street by the sea. Could her father be capable of doing something terrible? How much does her mother know? And is there another secret in this community, one which goes deeper into Australia's colonial past, which has held them in a conspiracy of silence? Deftly exploring the deterioration of relationships and the devastating truths we keep from those we love, The Silence is a stunning debut from a rising literary star.

They thought they’d found their dream home. They were wrong. 2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain – a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn’t resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right – and as the problems mount up, Max starts to doubt her relationship as well as her decision. Is Seb all he seems to be? And why are the neighbours so evasive about the house’s previous owner? 1994. Cookie and his parents have been forced by his dad’s gambling debts to move into the attic room of a big old house, as lodgers. Tensions run high between them and their elderly landlady, and there’s something odd about the place that Cookie can’t quite put his finger on… 1843. Horatio built this house for his beloved wife, who then died in mysterious circumstances. After a second death on the premises, both his servants and the locals are starting to talk. Horatio’s grief is tinged with shame and guilt. What is he hiding? And will the house ever be free of his legacy? THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is a tense, taut, beautifully crafted novel about the treachery of secrets and the many ways the past can echo into the present, from the acclaimed author of THE SILENCE.