Out on 24 April 2025

The Hidden Heart

Karen Swan

24 April 2025
9781035051618
480 pages

Synopsis

If there’s one thing Jayne Ferguson has learnt in her life, it’s that every blessing comes with a curse. She married the most handsome man on the isle of St Kilda - but he’s a bully. She inherited her mother’s gift of second sight - but only ever forsees her fellow islanders’ deaths. She has learnt to keep to herself, treading in the shadows and shirking the highs for fear of the lows.

When a needless death strikes at the heart of her home, Jayne’s bad marriage becomes worse and she finds solace with an unlikely friend. Glimmers of happiness tantalise her, though there’s no possibility for anything more, especially once word comes of St Kilda’s evacuation.

But as the day draws near, tensions on the island rise. Secrets are being forced to the surface, passions and enmities erupting with equal violence. A man is killed, as Jayne knew he would be, and those closest to her are implicated.

On the mainland, the villagers scatter into new lives, hoping distance means refuge. But then Jayne has another of her dreams and she knows the past isn’t done with them yet.

a gripping new series set on the Scottish island of St Kilda . . . meticulously researched and beautifully told by one of our most prolific and talented writers. It contains all the ingredients of a wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with - and some you hate!
The most exciting, enchanting and evocative story of forbidden love I’ve ever read. I truly loved it and am waiting feverishly for the second installment.
Vividly drawn and beautifully atmospheric, this is a book to savour.