Possession

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating – and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor Possession was Celia Fremlin's seventh novel, first published in 1969. Middle-class mother Clare Erskine initially thinks it a great stroke of luck when her 19 year-old daughter Sarah becomes engaged to a young man with a steady job. However Clare's betrothed, Mervyn Redmayne, has a notable black mark against him: a widowed mother with a petulant, inescapable grip on her son.

Brilliant… yet another of Miss Fremlin's triumphs.'

Times

'Fremlin, masterly delineator of suburban sin and distiller of eerie tensions from commonplace events, achieves a formidable triumph in this new thriller… a must for addicts of the genre.'

Scotsman