Paperback published by Panmacmillan 20th January 2022
ISBN 9781529029468
Pages 368
One crack and their lives will shatter.
Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to feel a place she can belong.
So when a job comes up at Startling Villas, a home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder , she seizes the opportunity with both hands.
Only her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was hoping for. Her employer lives by a set of rigid rules and she soon sees that he is hiding secrets of his own.
But is Nell’s arrival at the Villas really the coincidence it seems? After all, she knows more than most how fragile people can be and how easy they can be to break.
MY REVIEW
I have been a fan of Sarah Hilary for years reading many of her novels.
Fragile is my personal top favourite, psychological thriller.
Nell Ballard who was fostered, has finally runaway sleeping rough.
For a specific reason, she takes a job as a housekeeper in Startling Villas, for a man Robin Wilder and his strange wife.
Nell has her own room in the attic. She has many secrets that she doesn’t share.
Robin’s wife Carolyn, is quite horrible to Nell.
It seems that Nell isn’t the only person keeping secrets.
The conclusion I originally was thinking while reading this fascinating page-turning chilling, story, I was wrong.
This dark contemporary psychological thriller that is not in any way predictable is totally unputdownable!
About Sarah Hilary
Sarah Hilary is the critically-acclaimed author of nine novels. Her debut, Someone Else’s Skin, won the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year 2015 and was a World Book Night selection, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a finalist for both the Silver Falchion and Macavity Awards in the US. No Other Darkness, the second in her DI Marnie Rome series, was shortlisted for a Barry Award.
In April 2026, The Drowning Place will introduce readers to DS Joseph Ashe at the start of a brand new series set in the Peak District.
Sarah is Programme Director for St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend, and co-founder of Ledburied, a crime fiction festival in her home town. Her short stories have won the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize, the Cheshire Prize for Literature, and the SENSE Prize.https://www.instagram.com/sarah_hilary99
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