Cages

by David Mark

Overview

A dark past. A terrifying secret. A deadly game is about to begin . . .

Washed-up author Rufus Orton needs money. It's the main reason he takes the gig teaching creative writing to inmates at HMP Holderness. That, and the flattery of prison officer Annabeth Harris, who contacted him out of the blue and begged him to take the job.

Annabeth loves Rufus' work. Genuinely. She loves being a prison officer too. But Annabeth is keeping a secret. Fifteen years ago she did something bad, and if it ever comes out, her new, perfect life will be destroyed.

HMP resident Griffin Cox has no black marks against his name. He claims he's been wrongly convicted of the sex offence that put him in prison. He's lying. He has a plan - and everything hinges on him securing a place in the classroom with Rufus and Annabeth. It's only then that the game can begin . . .

Dark, twisted and gripping, CAGES is an addictive psychological thriller from a "master" of the genre (Kirkus Reviews). If you enjoy disturbing, charismatic criminals like Hannibal Lector and Patrick Bateman, you'll love Griffin Cox.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727890917
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

David Mark spent seven years as crime reporter for the Yorkshire Post and now writes full-time. A former Richard & Judy pick, and a Sunday Times bestseller, he is the author of the DS Aector McAvoy series and several standalone thrillers, including The Mausoleum, A Rush of Blood, Borrowed Time and Suspicious Minds. He lives in Northumberland with his family.

Editorial Reviews

2021-03-17
A creepy psychological thriller from a specialist in bone-chilling suspense such as The Burying Ground (2020).

Annabeth Harris, a rising star at her job in the British prison system, has a secret: As a teenager, she killed her sexual abuser with a snow globe after he impregnated her. Now, looking for ways to make an impression at work, she asks author Rufus Orton to give a series of creative writing classes at HMP Holderness. Orton, struggling to produce a successful novel, agrees because he’s desperate for money. Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency is striving to pin a series of probable murders on convicted child kidnapper Griffin Cox, a Holderness inmate. Wealthy and brilliant, he’s suspected of a number of abduction/murders, but no bodies have been found. The manipulative Cox talks his way into Orton’s creative writing class, from which he’d been barred as an inmate in danger from the rest of the prison population. Annabeth is unhappy with this turn of events, but the class goes remarkably well even though Cox baits Orton and the other class members. But then Cox doodles a snow globe on his class paper, and Annabeth is terrified. When Orton stays overnight with Annabeth and her son, Ethan, she learns that among the prison stories Orton’s reading is one Cox has written about her. The next class becomes a pitched battle, as Cox is stabbed and Annabeth waits in fear of what he will require from her to keep her secret.

A grisly thriller with a shocking climax few readers will see coming.

Kirkus Reviews

Gripping from start to finish

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