Jawbone Lake - Hardcover

"This is a literary thriller of the highest order." (Irish Independent)

"Robinson brings his characters alive by the evocation of their expansive inner worlds, the reaction of each to the events that spiral out from Jawbone Lake. Even the landscape of the Peaks colludes in the shifting of perspectives, slowly revealing more secrets to the intertwined protagonists. This novel resounds long after the mesmerising final sentence completes its circle. On the surface, it’s a literary thriller. But Robinson uses the frame of taut, compulsive storytelling to reveal infinite space beyond – the fathoms that lie between us." (Guardian)

"Robinson is very good on the odd dynamics of the relationships grown-up sons have with their fathers ... the characters and the writing are so compelling. This book is also full of unexpected imagery ... and amusing dialogue ... that will linger happily in the memory" (Jake Kerridge Sunday Express)

"[A] lyrical novel about lives in a remarkable landscape." (Sunday Times)

"A gripping, thought-provoking tale" (The List)

From the author of Electricity and Forgetting Zoë, comes a thought-provoking, beautifully written and taut thriller.

Ravenstor, the Peak District. The early hours of New Year’s Day. A young woman stands on the shore of a frozen lake and watches a Land Rover crash off a bridge and through the ice. Two hundred miles away, a young man is woken by a devastating telephone call. The accident, and what it brings to the surface, will change both of their lives forever.

The driver of the Land Rover was CJ Arms, a successful local businessman and pillar of the small community. The young man is his son, Joe, who returns from London to comfort his mother and to search for clues as to the causes of the crash. What he finds will take him from the desolate tors of the Peaks to the foothills of southern Spain, and to a group of ex-pats from CJ’s past with many secrets to hide.

The woman on the lakeshore is Rabbit, a factory-worker struggling to recover from the sudden death of her son. Pursued by an unknown figure, Rabbit is spun from a cycle of grief and longing into one of fear. Seeking shelter at work, Rabbit finds that she can’t hide for long. What Rabbit saw that night will draw her, and Joe, towards a shocking act of violence.

Jawbone Lake is both a heart-stopping literary thriller, and a moving meditation on family, generational divide and the dangers of living a double life. Alive with the lyrical evocation of landscape that is Robinson’s forte, it is an astonishing new work of fiction from one of our finest writers.