Quiet Dell - Softcover

"Superb... A brilliant, beautiful novel" (Sunday Times)

"In a brilliant fusion of fact and fiction, Jayne Anne Phillips has written the novel of the year... A compulsively readable story" (Stephen King)

"Absorbing and captivating." (Mark Lawson Guardian)

"A powerful and moving novel." (Jonathan Gibbs Independent)

"Quiet Dell has all the elements of a murder mystery, but its emotional scope is larger and more complex. It combines a strange hypnotic and poetic power with the sharp tones of documentary evidence. It offers a portrait of rural America in a time of crisis and dramatises the lives of a number of characters who are fascinating and memorable." (Colm Tóibín)

"An extraordinary book – the best she has written." (Kate Kellaway Observer)

A Story of Love, Murder and Obsession

Chicago, 1931. Asta Eicher, a lonely widow with three children, is thrilled when Harry Powers asks her to marry him, and agrees to travel with him to West Virginia.

She and her children are never seen alive again.

Emily Thornhill, one of the few women in the Chicago press, is sent to cover their disappearance. Obsessed with trying to find out what happened to the family, her investigations lead deeper into the case, uncovering the terrifying truth behind the tragedy.

‘Extraordinary’ Observer ‘Brilliant’ Sunday Times