I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire.

Smoke unravelling from an upper window, and the terrace bathed in a hectic orange light . . .

Now I see that the decision I made at Polneath was the only decision of my life. Everything marred in that one dark minute. By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War.

But by night she mourns another boy - one whose death decades ago haunts her still. For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.

But once you open a door to the past, can you ever truly close it again? From the award-winning author of The Witchfinder's Sister comes a captivating story of burning secrets and buried shame, and of the loyalty and love that rises from the ashes. __________________________________ 'Absorbing, beautifully written . .

. Everything I enjoy in a gothic mystery' Rosie Andrews, author of The Leviathan 'A masterclass in atmosphere... haunting, vivid and urgent, like The Witchfinder's Sister, The Key in the Lock demands to be devoured whole' Stacey Halls, author of The Foundling 'A beautifully observed novel.

Intriguing, beguiling and surprising until the very end - I was transfixed and moved by Underdown's storytelling.' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground'Brilliantly twisty, dripping with mystery and utterly heartbreaking' Emily Koch, author of Keep Him Close 'Underdown's latest is a gothic mystery of the highest order. Chilling, sad, beautiful, and so elegantly conjured, it's a story that summons du Maurier but retains ghosts all its own. I raced through it, my heart in my mouth.