I wasn’t even on the wrought-iron balcony of my California condo, looking out at the Pacific and drinking zinfandel and pretending I was exactly where I’ve always wanted to be.

A picture of El and Ross on holiday somewhere fills the screen—all tan and white teeth; his arm flung around her shoulders as she leans in, tips up her chin to laugh.Instead, he's looking out at the firth, his mouth open and teeth bared in a wail of despair and horrified grief that I can almost hear. It’s about twins Ellice (El) and Catriona (Cat) who as children are as close as can be but as adults have drifted apart with El remaining in their native Edinburgh and Cat moving to LA.

On the morning of April the third, Leith resident Ellice MacAuley, thirty-one, sailed from this yacht club in Granton Harbour on the Firth of Forth, and has not been seen or heard from since. MIRRORLAND, her debut novel, has sold in 13 territories, and has been optioned by Heyday TV and NBC Universal.

As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches, and clowns. In the stern stood Annie, Mouse, Belle, and Old Joe Johnson, the barkeep of the Three-Fingered-Joe Saloon. Their friendship blossoms as they help each other, offering support, hard truths, and loving backup. How could I not have realized before that it’s the same harbor—a place I haven’t thought about in decades, and yet there it is, almost unchanged. With the startling twists of Gone Girl and the haunting emotional power of Room, Mirrorland is a thrilling work of psychological suspense about twin sisters, the man they both love, and the dark childhood they can’t leave behind.

She is such a complex character but I agree, she never gives up on herself so it’s easy to be in her corner. Although a somewhat unreliable protagonist, I became utterly drawn into Cat’s world – and into the world of Mirrorland – very quickly.In the prologue, we meet twin sisters Cat and El, who’ve run to the harbor at night to join a pirate ship. An intricate, brilliant puzzle of a novel where past and present, fantasy and reality, are all clues that one twin must decipher to uncover the fate of her missing sister and the secrets of their shared past. has left Cat clues: a treasure hunt that leads them back to Mirrorland, where the truth lies waiting. Combining a well-crafted mystery, a unique premise, and the compulsive readability of a thriller, Mirrorland is an impressive debut that is sure to appeal to fans of Tana French, Ruth Ware, Erin Kelly and Sarah Pinborough.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. He pauses, and even though he's only being filmed from the waist up, I can tell he's widening his stance, like a gunslinger. This reading group guide for Mirrorland includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The main reason I suggest this is because the book moves back and forth between the present and the past, something that is very difficult to tell when you’re listening to the narration. It is a little like watching (my guilty pleasure) Midsomer Murders, were the only joy is in deciding who is the least predictable villain and then clocking the solution and motive.Let me entice you even more… Ellice Macauley (married to Ross Macauley) and her twin Catriona Morgan grew up in Scotland. Although El has left clues for Cat, the clues are mostly directed at the reader: if you reference Papillon and A Tale Of Two Cities and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you have already set the parameters of the game. Westeryk Road is still full of shadowy, hidden corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past. Although never gratuitous or overly graphic, the truth behind Mirrorland is very dark indeed and the novel is a testament to the power of the imagination and the many and varied ways that the body – and the mind – will try to protect itself from trauma.