LIFE RUINS

How can you save someone else... when you can't even save yourself? Coffin Road meets Abattoir Blues in this gripping crime thriller set on the bleak Yorkshire coast.

LIFE RUINS is a tense thriller set around the derelict mines of the east Yorkshire coast. When urban explorer Jared Godwin investigates an underground tunnel that has been abandoned for decades, he barely escapes being buried alive. In the darkness, he sees something that could be the body of a woman. After his escape, he decides he must have been hallucinating. Then a young girl vanishes, and another is attacked and horrifically mutilated. Jared realises that what he saw may be both real and dangerous. Becca Armitage, a vulnerable young woman with an abusive past, is trying to find her missing friend and asks Jared to help her. But both Jared and Becca have witnessed things it is not safe to see and know things it is not safe to know. No one will listen to what they have to say, and someone is trying to silence them before they can tell their stories.

A body, briefly glimpsed at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft, vanishes when the police investigate. Jared, recovering from an almost fatal injury and addicted to painkillers, knows he saw something terrible in that mine but he has no evidence, and fears he's losing his grip on reality.

A girl is attacked so savagely she can't be identified, and dumped late at night in an isolated campground. She's alive, but only just. Becca, tossed out of university and just let go from her dead-end job, is certain she knows who the victim is. But no one will believe her, and she can hardly even trust herself.

Kay, recently widowed and coming to terms with life on her own, suddenly finds herself forced to get involved. For years she and her husband fostered difficult children – including Becca, whom trouble follows like a stray puppy. And now Becca seems to be in the worst trouble of her life.

And then Jared and Becca meet. Becca, strong-minded and fiercely independent, is confident they can figure out what's going on. She pulls Kay into the mix, knowing they'll need all the help they can get because the police don't believe them. And more girls are vanishing.

Separately, Kay, Becca and Jared believe their lives have hit rock bottom. But drawn together under extraordinary circumstances, they'll discover the strength to fight back and ultimately rebuild their lives from the ruins.

Set amidst the bleak landscape of the east Yorkshire coast, LIFE RUINS combines haunting landscapes that will appeal to readers of PETER MAY and ANN CLEVES with the thoughtful, internal crime writing of DENISE MINA in a new and unforgettable novel.

DANUTA KOT lives in Sheffield, England with her artist husband. For many years, he has painted the scenes that form a potent backdrop to her writing. She currently works as a senior education consultant and is a regular speaker at conferences, literary festivals, and has appeared on radio and television.