By the second paragraph of this book, you will think you know what happened to young Patch Macauley. (Spoiler alert: You don’t.) By the second page, you will need to know what happened to Patch Macauley. By the 22nd page, you will have realised taking this journey into small-town America where Patch and his best friend, Saint, live is no longer optional. And by the last page, you will need a large drink and a lie down as you recover from the epic pilgrimage you have just been on.

Monta Clare is the kind of small town that would feel right at home in the pages of a Stephen King novel, and Chris Whitaker’s characters are just as well-drawn and intriguing as anything King could create. There’s Chief Nix, the tired but dedicated policeman who takes Saint under his wing as she tries anything and everything to bring her friend back. Sammy, a philandering alcoholic gallery owner encourages a scarred Patch to take up painting as an escape from the world that has damaged him so very much. Dr Tooms, with his secrets and lies, the wealthy Meyer family living above the town, but still unable to remove themselves completely from those they deem beneath them, and Ivy Macauley, Patch’s mother and perhaps the most heartbreaking character of them all.

And then there’s Patch and Saint. Childhood friends, drawn together because they had no one else, their lives take a very different path when Patch returns. Both haunted by the crime that separated them, both determined to stop it from happening again, they chase the impossible until it becomes reality. Gritty, bleak and all-encompassing, this crime novel is a commitment (all 576 pages of it) not to be taken lightly.