Midnight cactus - Bella Pollen

To the south lies Mexico. To the North you can see the flat plains and snow tipped peaks of the Patagonia Mountains . . . and in between is a strange and wild landscape representing a freedom so great that for a long moment, I find it hard to breathe.

On the run from her claustrophobic marriage in London, Alice Coleman moves her two small children to a ghost town in the Arizona desert - and there finds an escape she hadn't thought possible.

But the mythic southwest has room for more than one fugitive. In the dusty, alien atmosphere, it seems that everyone - from Benjamn, the town's loyal caretaker, to the laconic and mysterious Duval - has something to hide. And as winter moves to scorching summer, what seemed idyllic turns deadly as Alice is drawn deeper into an obsessive quest for revenge.

Vivid and compelling, Midnight Cactus explores the tensions between unrealized dreams and the pull of family, until finally, in a blistering climax Alice is forced to decide just what she is willing to sacrifice to hold on to her freedom.