Book tip: "Hanging Hill"

Mo Hayder

Atlantic Monthly Press

When the body of a beautiful, popular high school girl is found on the towpath of a canal, British cop-cum-Harley enthusiast Zoe Benedict disagrees with her colleagues that a classmate is responsible. One of the girl's best friends happens to be the daughter of Zoe's estranged sister, Sally. Recently divorced, Sally takes a job as a housekeeper for a bizarre rich guy - who turns out to be an abusive pornographer. Circumstances bring the sisters back together in disturbing ways that require increasingly desperate solutions. Hayder is a master of evocative atmosphere and escalating dread - and watch that last page. It'll peel back your skull and spiders will crawl out.

- RICK KOSTER