Twenty years ago, Iris lost her best friend.
Lucy Bennett was beautiful, reckless, impossible to ignore, and her sudden death shattered the small coastal town of Riverton. Iris left soon after, carrying memories she has spent half her life trying to outrun.
Now she is back.
At first, Riverton feels almost welcoming. The streets are familiar. The sea is exactly as she remembers it. And caring for elderly June Hargreaves offers Iris the quiet life she has spent years pretending she doesn’t want.
But then strange things begin to happen.
Ruined flowers. Dead moths. Familiar warnings. Cruel little echoes of the things that happened to Lucy in the days before she died.
As suspicion spreads through town, old rumours resurface. Maybe Lucy’s death was never the tragic accident everyone believed. Maybe someone in Riverton has been keeping a secret for twenty years.
Or maybe the person who hurt Lucy has been waiting for Iris to come back.
In Riverton, the past is beginning to repeat itself.
And this time, Iris is the one in its path.
This is a slow-burn psychological / domestic thriller focused on tension, memory, identity and small-town secrets rather than fast-paced action. If you enjoy subtle unease, unreliable narrators, buried pasts, complicated grief and characters, this may be a good fit for you.
Themes include: secrets and deception, past trauma, grief, obsession, surveillance, stalking, identity, and the long shadow of a suspicious death.
