Six old friends. One cottage on the Yorkshire coast. A secret that was never supposed to surface.
When Maya finds an old booking confirmation pinned to a kitchen noticeboard, it should mean nothing - just another scrap of paper left behind by a stranger. Instead, it's a name that doesn't belong to anyone in the house. As the group settles into a week of walks, wine and old jokes, Maya can't shake the feeling that someone she loves has been lying to her since the moment they arrived.
Ethan swears he's never set foot in Whitby before. But his ease with the town, the way he moves through it like he already knows where the light falls - says otherwise. And he's not the only one holding something back. Sophie's careful, watchful kindness starts to look like something closer to guilt. Leila, always the one filing other people's secrets away for later, finds herself keeping one of her own.
As the tide pulls in and out below the cliffs, the truth comes ashore piece by piece - a decade-old grief, a mother nobody knew existed, and a choice that will decide whether this friendship survives the holiday at all.
A slow-burn psychological suspense novel about the stories we tell the people we love, and the ones we can't bring ourselves to tell at all. For readers of Local Woman Missing and All Her Fault.
