Heart-Shaped Box

Sooner or later the dead catch up.

When Judas Coyne heard someone was selling a ghost on the internet, there was no question. It was perfect for his collection of the macabre: the cannibal's cookbook, the witch's confession, the authentic snuff movie. As an ageing death-metal rock-god, buying a poltergeist almost qualifies as a business expense.

Besides, Jude thinks he knows all about ghosts. Jude has been haunted for years... by the spirits of bandmates dead and gone, the spectre of the abusive father he fled as a child, and the memory of the suicidal girl he abandoned. But this ghost, delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box, is different. It makes the house feel cold. It makes the dogs bark. And it means to chase Jude from his home and make him run for his life.

'A genuinely scary novel. I loved it.' NEIL GAIMAN

'While the novel's occult elements are horrific enough, the true horror is the very human cycle of abuse, as victim becomes victimiser. And the redemption is achieved without recourse to sentimentality.' Guardian