The Stopped Heart: A Novel

Internationally bestselling author Julie Myersonamp;#8217;s beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragediesamp;#8212;past and presentamp;#8212;haunting a picturesque country cottage.

Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasnamp;#8217;t been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. Itamp;#8217;s idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed deadamp;#8212;surely no one could survive such an accident. But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. Thereamp;#8217;s something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.

Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense thereamp;#8217;s something in the house. Childrenamp;#8217;s whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.

Has Maryamp;#8217;s grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt heramp;#8230;?