Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Places to lie, die and disappear

RECOVERING from their mother’s attempted suicide, young sisters Caroline and Joanna spend the summer of 1990 at their great-aunt’s quiet Cotswold cottage in A Place to Lie by Rebecca Griffiths (Sphere, £19.99).

But what might have been an idyllic break from their harsh reality ends in horror, in a village tainted by sad secrets and terrible passions. Nearly 30 years later, a tragic accident takes Joanna back to Witchwood, where she finds answers to questions she might have been better off not asking.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
(L to R) Wong Boks and a Chinese cabbage and tofu soup  Pics (L to R): Bayartai/CC and NeoBatfreak/CC
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down

CRIME
Crime fiction / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream

crime
Book Reviews / 10 June 2025
10 June 2025

A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia

Organic beetroot / Pic: Evan-Amos/CC
Gardening / 7 June 2025
7 June 2025

Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD

Similar stories
RESILIENCE: (Right) Stand Up To Racism protest on October 26
Features / 31 December 2024
31 December 2024
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
Aboubakar Traore
Global Routes / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
Two new releases from Burkina Faso and Niger, one from French-based Afro Latin The Bongo Hop, and rare Mexican bootlegs
A panel from the Palestinian History Tapestry
Exhibition Review / 1 October 2024
1 October 2024
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an exhibition that asserts Palestinian history, culture and creativity in the face of strategies to erase them
ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE: Group of six European men sitting,
Book Review / 24 September 2024
24 September 2024
FRANCOISE VERGES introduces a powerful new book that explores the damage done by colonial theft