Secrets and memories collide in The Twilight Hour, the new novel from bestselling author Nicci Gerrard.

‘Be with me now, at the twilight hour. When the light fails.’
‘I’m here.’
‘Tell me.’
‘What shall I tell you?’
‘Tell me about us, when we were young. What was it like? What was I like then?’

Eleanor Lee has lived a fiercely independent existence for over ninety years, but now it’s time to tidy her life away – books, photographs, paintings, letters – a lifetime of possessions all neatly boxed up for the last time. But amongst them there are some things that must be kept hidden. And, nearing blindness, Eleanor needs help to uncover them before her children and grandchildren do.

Peter, a young man with a broken heart who feels as lost as Eleanor’s past, is employed to help with this task. And together they uncover traces of another life – words and photographs telling a story of forbidden love, betrayal, passion, grief and self-sacrifice, which Eleanor must visit one last time.

By speaking her memories out loud, and releasing the secrets of her past, Eleanor can finally lay them to rest. To honour them at last, and protect those who must never know.

Praise for Nicci Gerrard:

‘Beguiling, poignant, wonderful’ Sunday Express

‘Acutely observed and beautifully written’ Woman and Home

‘Subtle, poignant and tremendously skilful’ Observer

Nicci Gerrard writes for the Observer and is the co-author, with Sean French, of the bestselling Nicci French thrillers. She lives in Suffolk with her husband and four children. Her novels Things We Knew Were True, Solace, The Moment You Were Gone, The Winter House and Missing Persons are all published by Penguin and received rave reviews.