Our Last Wild Days

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of TALL BONES: 
 <ul><li>A Guardian Book of the Month</li><li>Grazia's Book Club's Book of the Month</li><li>Thriller of the Month, Observer</li><li>'Irresistible' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train</li><li>'Wonderfully haunting' JANE HARPER, author of The Dry</li><li>'Conjuring up... Twin Peaks and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects' Stylist</li><li>'One of the most exciting debuts of the year' Sunday Express</li></ul> 
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‘There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby...And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she’s a good killer – and yet. She is stalling…’ 
 
The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution… 
 
______ 
 
Praise for TALL BONES: 
 
‘[The] portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible. Bailey understands that the dynamics that drive small-town relationships are the same the world over’ VAL McDERMID 
 
'A clever, twisting debut, about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine 
 
‘Anna Bailey writes like a dream about teenage love and lust, the terror of knowledge and the claustrophobia of families and of small towns. Tall Bones is as brutal, as bittersweet, as tender and as tense as first love itself’ EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths 
 
‘An intricate and compelling thriller, beautifully nuanced and wonderfully claustrophobic. Brilliant.’ 
SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep 
 
'Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets. Anna writes beautifully and it was so refreshing to experience a different voice - a stunning debut that delivers on every level.' RENEE KNIGHT, author of Disclaimer 
 
Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestseller, April 2021

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.

Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark and We Begin at the End

Raw and unflinching, Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days is about the mystery of how anyone survives as much as it is the mystery of how one woman didn’t. In a beautifully observed story brimming with singular characters, small-town Louisiana still manages to steal the show, with Bailey playing anthropologist as much as fiction writer, painting a vivid portrait of a South that feels both familiar and fantastical. Out of alligators, fox skulls, violence, poverty, and love, they weave a spell that lasts from the first page until the shocking, unforgettable ending. This is a stunner.

Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.

'A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a truly atmospheric thriller." 
Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark and We Begin at the End 
 
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of TALL BONES:<ul><li>A Guardian Book of the Month</li><li>Grazia's Book Club's Book of the Month</li><li>Thriller of the Month, Observer</li><li>'Irresistible' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train</li><li>'Wonderfully haunting' JANE HARPER, author of The Dry</li><li>'Conjuring up... Twin Peaks and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects' Stylist</li><li>'One of the most exciting debuts of the year' Sunday Express</li></ul>______ 
 
‘There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby...And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she’s a good killer – and yet. She is stalling…’ 
 
The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution… 
 
______ 
 
Praise for TALL BONES: 
 
‘[The] portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible. Bailey understands that the dynamics that drive small-town relationships are the same the world over’ VAL McDERMID 
 
'A clever, twisting debut, about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine 
 
‘Anna Bailey writes like a dream about teenage love and lust, the terror of knowledge and the claustrophobia of families and of small towns. Tall Bones is as brutal, as bittersweet, as tender and as tense as first love itself’ EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths 
 
‘An intricate and compelling thriller, beautifully nuanced and wonderfully claustrophobic. Brilliant.’ 
SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep 
 
'Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets. Anna writes beautifully and it was so refreshing to experience a different voice - a stunning debut that delivers on every level.' RENEE KNIGHT, author of Disclaimer 
 
Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestseller, April 2021

Anna Bailey

The engrossing, hauntingly beautiful Sunday Times bestseller

LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 
(Published in the US as 'Where the Truth Lies') 
 
'Wonderfully haunting' JANE HARPER, author of The Dry 
 
 'Extremely well written, fantastic' HARRIET TYCE, author of Blood Orange 
 
'Conjuring up... Twin Peaks and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects' Stylist 
 
'Very moving... an assured debut' Laura Wilson, Guardian 
 
'Spellbinding.... a stunning debut' Woman &amp; Home 
 
'Irresistible' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train 
 
'Clever, twisting' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine 
 
'Compelling, beautifully nuanced, brilliant' SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep 
 
'Delivers on every level' RENEE KNIGHT, author of Disclaimer 
'A nuanced thriller that will haunt you long after you race through its pages' Grazia 
'One of the most exciting debuts of the year' Sunday Express 
________________________________________________ 
 
 When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, beneath the stark beauty of the stars, but Emma will never see her friend again. 
 
 But what happens next in Whistling Ridge is so much more than the story of a missing girl. 
 
 It's a spellbinding story that will keep you guessing, a story of surprises and secrets, regrets and rage, love and lies. Abi's disappearance cracks open the façade of this small town, peeling away the layers of its past. Even within Abi's own family there are questions to be asked - of the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of the shining younger sibling who hides his wounds, of her mother and her father - both in thrall to the fiery preacher who has an unsettling grasp on the whole town. And then there is Rat, the outsider, whose exciting presence is a catalyst for change. 
 
 Anything could happen in a tinder-box like Whistling Ridge. All it will take is just one spark...the truth of what happened that night at the Tall Bones. Beautifully written, arresting, and constantly surprising, TALL BONES is a gripping read from a stunning new voice. 
 ______________________________________ 
 
 READERS AND REVIEWERS praise TALL BONES: 
 
'A striking first novel' Observer 
 
'Fast-paced and moving' Literary Review 
 
'Will haunt you long after you race through its pages' Grazia (Book of the Month) 
 
'A compulsive literary crime-drama' Culturefly 
 
'Bailey writes like a dream' Emma Flint, author of Little Deaths 
 
'Brilliant, could not put it down' Katie Fford 
 
'One of my all-time favourite reads' Goodreads 
 
'I loved this book from the very first line' Goodreads

Anna Bailey

Tall Bones

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