THE BINDING SONG

A chilling debut for fans of Mo Hayder and Sharon Bolton, THE BINDING SONG takes you on a trip to Halvergate Prison. If you're lucky, you'll get to leave...
Dr Janet Palmer has just been appointed as lead psychologist at HMP Halvergate in a remote, bleak area of Norfolk. It is a promotion, but not a comfortable one: there have been a string of suicides, and her predecessor seems to have disappeared - along with his notes. The staff are hostile, the threat of violence is ever-present, and there are rumours of a 'woman in white' stalking the corridors, punishing the inmates for their sins.

Inmates are killing themselves at Halvergate, and nobody can say why, least of all the prison psychologist who has disappeared. His replacement, Dr Janet Palmer, arrives from London expecting to restore order, and hoping to bury her own demons once and for all. Instead she is plunged into a claustrophobic, corrupt world, where the isolation of the Norfolk landscape is almost as chilling as her colleagues. The inmates speak of ‘a white woman’ who stalks the corridors, the physical embodiment of their victims, seeking vengeance from beyond the grave. But As the violence escalates, Janet fears Halvergate is haunted, not by ghosts, but by a far darker psychological terror. Can Janet unravel the mystery, or will she too fall prey to whatever is driving the men to their deaths?

This psychological thriller will appeal to readers of THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT and I LET YOU GO, but also branch out into a wider crime readership. I found it reminiscent of Sharon Bolton, with shades of Poppet by Mo Hayder.
Elodie Harper plans for Janet Palmer to be a recurring character and her next book will follow her working with the former victims of sex trafficking in Peterborough, after a series of pimps are murdered.

Elodie Harper is currently a staff reporter and presenter at ITV News Anglia, where she has won industry awards for her work. Her job has seen her join one of the most secretive wings of the Church of Scientology, cover the far right hip hop scene in Berlin, and record daily life in schools for the UK’s most vulnerable children. While Halvergate is fictional, she has used her experience as a journalist to ensure it reflects the pressures and realities of a contemporary prison in a part of the world she knows well.