The Uninvited book cover

 A vivid, unsettling look at a possible future

What the cover says: “As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. He has never been good at relationships. Asperger’s Syndrome has seen to that. But he does have a talent for spotting behavioural patterns, and an outsider’s fascination with group dynamics.

Hesketh has no obvious reasons to connect the South East Asian case with the atrocities back home. Or with the increasingly odd behaviour of his beloved step son, Freddy. But when his Taiwan contact dies shockingly, and more acts of sabotage and child violence sweep the globe, Hesketh is forced to make connections that defy the rational principles on which he has staked his life, his career and – most devastatingly of all – his role as a father.”

The Uninvited isn’t the usual type of book I read. Is it crime, thriller, paranormal, science fiction or something else?

I’m not sure.

But whatever it is, it’s an interesting and thought provoking read, with an unusual take on the impact of environmental change.

It’s summarised on the dust-jacket as ‘part psychological thriller and part dystopian nightmare’. And I guess that’s right.

Either way, if you’re looking for something rather different – with engaging characters, a set of seemingly unconnected and unnervingly brutal incidents to piece together, and a theme that will keep you thinking long after the story is finished, this could be for you.