Fear of falling

'Gripping' Mail on SundayWhat if your child ends up hurting those you love?Lydia and Bel have been best friends for years, from wild teenage days all the way through to motherhood.

Bel becomes pregnant by accident and has a fraught relationship with daughter Freya, while Lydia and love-of-her-life Mac, after failed fertility treatment, choose to adopt.

Gorgeous toddler Chloe challenges them more than either of them had ever expected and as a teenager her behaviour escalates increasingly out of control, pushing their marriage, and Lydia and Bel's relationship, to breaking point. A harrowing and heart-breaking story of the splinters that can tear mothers and daughters, husbands and wives - and friends - apart. Praise for Cath Staincliffe:''This powerful, often harrowing story will move you to tears' My Weekly'Harrowing and humane.

A real knockout' Ian Rankin'It's always exciting to see a writer get better and better and Cath Staincliffe is doing just that' Val McDermid'Powerful, complex and utterly gripping' Sunday Mirror'An intelligent and emotionally engaging moral workout' Daily Telegraph'Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary' Ann Cleeves'Complex and satisfying' Sunday Times