Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street. You can't escape what's in your blood... All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice. Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive… The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.
Author
CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Her fourth novel, the gothic thriller Sundial (2022 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) was Observer Thriller of the Month and a USA Today, CNN and Apple Books selection for best new fiction. Stephen King called Sundial ‘Authentically terrifying…. Do not miss this book.’ Ward’s third breakout novel The Last House on Needless Street (2021 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) won the August Derleth Prize and has been shortlisted for the Kitschies, the British Book Awards, the South Bank Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Esquire magazine listed it as one of the top 25 best horror novels of all time. Rights have been sold in twenty-nine territories, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, a Times Book of the Month, Observer Book of the Month, March Editor’s Pick on Radio 4’s Open Book, a Between the Covers BBC2 book club selection and a Sunday Times bestseller. The Last House on Needless Street is being developed for film by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s production company, The Imaginarium. Stephen King said of The Last House on Needless Street, ‘I was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven't read anything this exciting since GONE GIRL.’ Ward’s second novel Little Eve (2018 - W&N, Tor Nightfire) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Nightfire will publish Little Eve for the first time in the US in 2022. Ward’s debut Rawblood (2015 - W&N, Sourcebooks) also won the 2016 August Derleth, making her the only woman to have won the prize three times. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and have been shortlisted for various prizes. She lives in London and Devon.
