Paul Cleave 
The Possession 
The horrifying, MUST-READ bestseller

‘The simplicity of Cleave’s writing disguises the intricacy of his plot … the plotting and tension are breathtaking’ The Times Thriller of the Month
Recovering from a devastating loss, Victoria Burke moves her family out past the edges of the city, where her nearest neighbours are miles away. But soon after their arrival, pets begin to disappear and her daughter starts behaving strangely – behaviour that convinces Victoria her daughter is possessed.
She approaches the church for help, and hits a dead end, but when people close to the family begin to die, she is forced to turn to a disgraced priest … a man who spent twenty years in jail for rape and murder…
And that is just the beginning…
Twisty, horrifying and breathtakingly tense, The Possession marks the return of New Zealand’s King of Crime, with an explosive, chilling novel about a woman who will do almost anything to keep her family secrets safe…

About the author

Paul Cleave is an award-winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and Europe. He’s won the New Zeal and Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the Ned Kelly in Australia. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He’s thrown his Frisbee in more than forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The critically acclaimed The Quiet People was published in 2021, with The Pain Tourist following in 2022.