Amanda Jennings - The Cliff House

Also by Amanda Jennings

In Her Wake

The Judas Scar

Sworn Secret

Copyright

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Amanda Jennings 2018

Amanda Jennings asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008248901

Version: 2020-01-16

Praise for The Cliff House

‘Haunting and evocative.’

Clare Mackintosh

‘ The Cliff House is a beautiful, stirring story of loss and obsession. The setting is dazzlingly described and the ending completely knocked my socks off. I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming!’

Lisa Jewell

‘Immensely atmospheric, with vividly drawn characters and a set-up fraught with tension. Jennings portrays the intensity, danger and vulnerability of teenage girls brilliantly and the 80s detail feels so authentic.’

Lucy Atkins

‘ The Cliff House is completely addictive and utterly compelling. Jennings writes with great insight about the obsessive nature of teenage female friendship and the quiet tragedies within dysfunctional families. It’s a clever, thoughtful and page-turning novel that should rightfully take Jennings to a very wide readership.’

Hannah Beckerman

‘This book made me whimper out loud for fear of what was going to happen to the characters. Hugely enjoyable, well written and gripping and clever.’

Jane Casey

‘Beautifully written, richly evocative, with characters and a setting that creep into your very bones.’

Tammy Cohen

‘Haunting, stylish, intoxicating. Beautifully paced and a brilliant ending. Superb.’

Will Dean

‘A beautifully written, atmospheric and tense tale of obsession. I was gripped from the first page to the heart-stopping ending. Brilliant.’

Claire Douglas

‘Hauntingly good.’

Sarah Hilary

‘An atmospheric and deeply satisfying treat.’

Emma Kavanagh

‘A beautifully written tale of jealousy, envy and possession. Jennings leads the reader along a twisted path filled with subtle dread and unease, to a wonderfully shocking ending - absolutely first-class story telling.’

Lisa Hall

‘With a page-turning plot, brilliant sense of place and beautifully-drawn characters The Cliff House deserves to be one of the biggest hits of the summer.’

Cass Green

‘I’ve been a fan of Amanda Jennings’ work for some time, but The Cliff House takes this hugely talented author to another level. It’s going to be one of the biggest, most talked about books of the summer and it’s a fabulous read.’

Louise Douglas

‘Amanda Jennings’ portrayal of time and place is exquisite. The Cliff House is chilling, stylish – and impossible to put down.’

Isabel Ashdown

‘Mesmerizing and nostalgic with a dark undercurrent that will leave you reeling.’

Susi Holliday

‘Wonderfully evocative and refreshingly different.’

Louise Voss

‘A haunting story with the moral ambiguity of du Maurier. Sea scented air filled with sunlight and menace… brilliant.’

Liz Fenwick

‘Hot, hazy and dangerous days against a stunning Cornish sky. A story of obsession that leaps to life from the page.’

Lucy Dawson

‘An addictive and insightful book about how grief can devastate and corrupt, full of the looming beauty of Cornwall.’

Katie Marsh

‘A heart-breaking, page-turning exploration of the pursuit and elusiveness of happiness.’

Julia Crouch

‘Unsettling, ominous and disturbingly brilliant – I couldn’t put it down.’

Laura Kemp

‘A beautiful, haunting portrait of obsession…Tamsyn and Edie are perfectly drawn, flawed yet painfully relatable characters who carry you across every page of The Cliff House , all the way to its heart-wrenching conclusion. I couldn’t put this book down.’

Beth Lewis

To Mum and Dad

With love as always.

‘If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.’

Maya Angelou

Contents

Cover

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Prologue

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

EPILOGUE

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

About the Publisher

Prologue

You sit and watch them from the same place you always do.

I spy.

With my little eye.

The grass is flattened where your weight rests. A patch of earth revealed where your feet have kicked back and forth to pass the time. The purple foil of a chocolate bar you ate a week ago glints from where it nestles amid the sandy thatch of vegetation beside you. Seagulls cry mournfully, wheeling high in the sky above you, above the breaking waves and the reach of their salty spray, no more than specks.

The house rises up from the windswept cliffs like a chalk monolith. You imagine somebody, God perhaps, has carved it from a giant block of marble, smooth and white with bold lines and straight edges and expansive sheets of glass that reflect the sea and sky like cinema screens. It stands proud and defiant, alien in this coastal place, a place of weathered cottages, ruined mine shafts and precarious birds’ nests made of dried seaweed and discarded fishing twine. Its heart beats rhythmically. Drums your ears. Deafens you as you watch them shift like wraiths from one room to another, then outside onto the terrace, their clothes and hair ruffled by a playful onshore breeze.