***AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** The mesmerising new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the multi-award-winning writer Megan Abbott. ''A book you will not be able to forget'' MARK BILLINGHAM With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were trained by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents'' death in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara''s husband and once their mother''s prized student. The three have perfected a dance that keeps the studio thriving. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school''s annual performance of The Nutcracker -a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration-an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance. '' A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption'' STYLIST ''A richly immersive novel'' SUNDAY TIMES ''Slow-burning and feverish, with all the intensity of a classic American film noir'' MAIL ON SUNDAY ''Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension'' IRISH TIMES ''Dark and juicy and tinged with horror'' NEW YORK TIMES ''Dark and mesmerising'' HARRIET TYCE ''This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent'' ATTICA LOCKE ''There''s no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott'' TANA FRENCH
