A major debut adventure

"A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric first novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist." -- KATE ATKINSON "A sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre ... As soon as you have breathed with relief, much worse horrors begin. It's a skilled, assured performance, and it's hard to believe it is a first novel." -- HILARY MANTEL "A suspenseful, gloriously atmospheric first novel, and a feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist." -- KATE ATKINSON "A sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre ... As soon as you have breathed with relief, much worse horrors begin. It's a skilled, assured performance, and it's hard to believe it is a first novel." -- HILARY MANTEL

Lauren Owen is twenty-nine years old and grew up in the grounds of an old country house in Yorkshire. Her first attempts at writing as a teenager were Harry Potter fan fictions. She is a graduate of St Hilda's, Oxford, holds an MA in Victorian Literature, is completing a PhD on Gothic writing and fan culture, and is the recipient of the Curtis Brown Prize for best writer on the UEA creative-writing programme. The Quick is her first novel.