Seren Doughty is a forty-two-year-old author who has written nothing in the five years since her daughter''s murder. Divorced and alone in her Edinburgh flat, Seren''s only relationship has been with Alex, a library research assistant too young and eager for her. So when her former editor approaches her agent with the idea for a ghost story, Seren immediately thinks of the abandoned island of Finish in the Outer Hebrides and seizes the opportunity to commit herself to a new project. Leaving her old life far behind, she immerses herself in island life: washing in the stream, collecting driftwood for the fire and growing her own vegetables. The only building on the island - a small stone bothy - becomes home as she finally picks up her pen and attempts to write. Except Finish is not abandoned. And not as unpeopled as Seren first supposed. She soon discovers the island is alive with strange noises and echoes of a bloody massacre, events more traumatic than any fiction she might construct.
