Tall Bones

The SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER, a GUARDIAN book of the month, praised by authors such as PAULA HAWKINS and JANE HARPER and chosen by VAL McDERMID for her prestigious New Blood Selection;TALL BONES marks the debut of an exceptional new talent.

The gripping Sunday Times bestseller, chosen as Book of the Month by the Guardian, Grazia and Observer, longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 
 
'Anna Bailey's debut is irresistible, a compelling and nuanced psychological thriller suffused with small town prejudice and dark family secrets.' PAULA HAWKINS, author of bestselling The Girl on the Train 
 
'One of the most exciting debuts of the year' SUNDAY EXPRESS 
 
'With Tall Bones, Anna Bailey bursts onto the scene with a wonderfully haunting debut. Small-town intrigue, exquisitely drawn' JANE HARPER, bestselling author of The Dry 
 
'Conjuring up... Twin Peaks and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects' STYLIST 
 
'Compelling, beautifully nuanced, brilliant' SJ WATSON, bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep 
 
________________________________________________ 
 
When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, beneath the stark beauty of the stars, but Emma will never see her friend again. 
 
But what happens next in Whistling Ridge is so much more than the story of a missing girl. 
 
It's a spellbinding story that will keep you guessing, a story of surprises and secrets, regrets and rage, love and lies. Abi's disappearance cracks open the façade of this small town, peeling away the layers of its past. 
 
Even within Abi's own family there are questions to be asked - of the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of the shining younger sibling who hides his wounds, of her mother and her father - both in thrall to the fiery preacher who has an unsettling grasp on the whole town. 
 
And then there is Rat, the outsider, whose exciting presence is a catalyst for change. 
 
Anything could happen in a tinder-box like Whistling Ridge. All it will take is just one spark...the truth of what happened that night at the Tall Bones.... 
______________________________________ 
 
READERS AND REVIEWERS praise TALL BONES: 
 
'Spellbinding and darkly beautiful.... intricately plotted and exquisitely written, Tall Bones is a stunning debut' WOMEN &amp; HOME 
 
'Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets... a stunning debut that delivers on every level. Reminded me of Jane Harper's The Dry' RENEE KNIGHT, bestselling author of Disclaimer 
 
'Its portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible. Bailey understands that the dynamics that drive small-town relationships are the same the world over' VAL McDERMID 
 
'A clever, twisting debut about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite.' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine 
 
'Will haunt you long after you race through its pages' Grazia 
 
'Bailey writes like a dream' EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths 
 
'One of my all-time favourite reads' 5-star reader review 
 
'I loved this book from the very first line' 5-star reader review 
 
'Wow!! This book was incredible! I never saw any of the twists coming' 5-star reader review 
 
'A gritty, haunting and intricately woven, explosive firecracker of a thriller' 5-star reader review 
____ 
 
COMING SOON: OUR LAST WILD DAYS - the stunning new novel from Anna Bailey, published April 2025

Beautifully written and very moving, this is an assured debut.

A nuanced thriller that will haunt you long after you race through its pages.

One of the most exciting debuts of the year.

Spellbinding and darkly beautiful.... intricately plotted and exquisitely written, Tall Bones is a stunning debut.

With Tall Bones, Anna Bailey bursts onto the scene with a wonderfully haunting debut. Small-town intrigue, exquisitely drawn.

JANE HARPER, author of The Dry and The Lost Man

The best kind of small-town crime novel... one that drips with atmosphere... an intricately weaved and haunting story that will stay with you for days after.

Both menacing and haunting, a compelling and atmospheric debut.

Anna Bailey writes like a dream about teenage love and lust, the terror of knowledge and the claustrophobia of families and of small towns.

Bailey writes with perfect poise. She is destined for great things - I feel it in my bones.

Cleverly written, Anna Bailey's debut shines a light on the darker and more oppressive side of small-town society.

Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets... a stunning debut that delivers on every level. Reminded me of Jane Harper's The Dry.

'A clever, twisting debut about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite.'

Anna Bailey's debut is irresistible, a compelling and nuanced psychological thriller suffused with small town prejudice and dark family secrets.

PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train

An intricate and compelling thriller, beautifully nuanced. Brilliant.

SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep

I felt so strongly about some of the characters that I had to check the ending to make sure they were ok! Extremely well written... fantastic.

Its portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible. Bailey understands that the dynamics that drive small-town relationships are the same the world over.

A terrific debut about guilt, secrets and complex family dynamics - the writing is vivid &amp; assured: Anna Bailey is definitely one to watch.

Gripping and so beautifully written Tall Bones is spellbinding; dark and menacing, but also so full of love and hope. I loved it. I cried.

CRESSIDA McLAUGHLIN, author of The Cornish Cream Tea Christmas

Haunting... Emma's path to where the truth lies will carry the reader's soul along in both moving and compassionate ways.

Brilliant! Could not put it down. It's utterly gripping and beautifully written.

Smart and compassionate, full of poetry and rage and shy hopes and shredded dreams and missing girls and family secrets.

This is a striking first novel, a chilling insight into an oppressive world, where bad thoughts and bad deeds ripple just below the surface, out of sight.

Chilling and compulsive... a dazzling debut.

KATE HAMER, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

Simmering resentments and long-held prejudices boil over in this beautifully realised evocation of small-town America. I I loved it.

An elegant, mesmerizing debut-Anna Bailey explores festering secrets with a with a sharp, yet tender gaze. This book reads like a whisper in the dark.

Cleverly written , Anna Bailey's debut shines a light on the darker and more oppressive side of small-town society.

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.

The gripping Sunday Times bestseller, chosen as Book of the Month by the Guardian, Grazia and Observer, longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 
 
'Anna Bailey's debut is irresistible, a compelling and nuanced psychological thriller suffused with small town prejudice and dark family secrets.' PAULA HAWKINS, author of bestselling The Girl on the Train 
 
'One of the most exciting debuts of the year' SUNDAY EXPRESS 
 
'With Tall Bones, Anna Bailey bursts onto the scene with a wonderfully haunting debut. Small-town intrigue, exquisitely drawn' JANE HARPER, bestselling author of The Dry 
 
'Conjuring up... Twin Peaks and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects' STYLIST 
 
'Compelling, beautifully nuanced, brilliant' SJ WATSON, bestselling author of Before I Go to Sleep 
 
________________________________________________ 
 
When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, beneath the stark beauty of the stars, but Emma will never see her friend again. 
 
But what happens next in Whistling Ridge is so much more than the story of a missing girl. 
 
It's a spellbinding story that will keep you guessing, a story of surprises and secrets, regrets and rage, love and lies. Abi's disappearance cracks open the façade of this small town, peeling away the layers of its past. 
 
Even within Abi's own family there are questions to be asked - of the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of the shining younger sibling who hides his wounds, of her mother and her father - both in thrall to the fiery preacher who has an unsettling grasp on the whole town. 
 
And then there is Rat, the outsider, whose exciting presence is a catalyst for change. 
 
Anything could happen in a tinder-box like Whistling Ridge. All it will take is just one spark...the truth of what happened that night at the Tall Bones.... 
______________________________________ 
 
READERS AND REVIEWERS praise TALL BONES: 
 
'Spellbinding and darkly beautiful.... intricately plotted and exquisitely written, Tall Bones is a stunning debut' WOMEN & HOME 
 
'Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets... a stunning debut that delivers on every level. Reminded me of Jane Harper's The Dry' RENEE KNIGHT, bestselling author of Disclaimer 
 
'Its portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible. Bailey understands that the dynamics that drive small-town relationships are the same the world over' VAL McDERMID 
 
'A clever, twisting debut about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite.' FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine 
 
'Will haunt you long after you race through its pages' Grazia 
 
'Bailey writes like a dream' EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths 
 
'One of my all-time favourite reads' 5-star reader review 
 
'I loved this book from the very first line' 5-star reader review 
 
'Wow!! This book was incredible! I never saw any of the twists coming' 5-star reader review 
 
'A gritty, haunting and intricately woven, explosive firecracker of a thriller' 5-star reader review 
____ 
 
COMING SOON: OUR LAST WILD DAYS - the stunning new novel from Anna Bailey, published April 2025

Anna Bailey

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.

Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark and We Begin at the End

What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting.

A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.

A bewitching slice of southern Gothic, in Our Last Wild Days, Anna Bailey cements her reputation for writing thought provoking, character driven crime fiction.

Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages. Beautifully written and utterly immersive.

Astonishingly brilliant...The prose sings, the storytelling is exquisite. A rare, extraordinary talent.

CJ Cooke, author of A Haunting in the Attic

Bailey does a remarkable job of conjuring up the haunted swamplands of southern Louisiana… A particularly spicy gumbo of a thriller

Raw and unflinching, Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days is about the mystery of how anyone survives as much as it is the mystery of how one woman didn’t. In a beautifully observed story brimming with singular characters, small-town Louisiana still manages to steal the show.... a stunner.

Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour

With a setting as atmospheric as Where The Crawdads Sing, and characters as memorable as those in All The Colours of The Dark, this is a stunningly written thriller and I savoured single page. Congratulations Anna - another blistering triumph to follow Tall Bones.

Nikki Smith, author of Look What You Made Me Do

Our Last Wild Days has everything I love in a suspense novel: a vivid and gritty setting, characters with sharp edges, atmosphere that seeps through the pages, and a dark, gripping mystery. Best of all is Anna Bailey’s exquisite prose, filled with lines worth tattooing and passages worth framing. This is a book that will sink into your bones.

Megan Collins, author of Cross My Heart and The Family Plot

A slow burn murder mystery that immerses readers in its dark and claustrophobic bayou setting

Anna Bailey is the master of things that move in the dark, with language so lush you feel like you could reach out and touch it. Our Last Wild Days is moody, visceral, stunning - don’t miss it.

Hayley Scrivenor, bestselling author of Dirt Town and Girl Falling, and winner of CWA Debut Dagger

The author hit the Sunday Times bestseller list with their debut… and I’m certain this will follow . . . Written with such alluring prose, this would make a superb film.

A brooding, evocative novel

i Paper, 'The best new crime and thriller books to read in April 2025'

Rich, atmospheric, and deeply evocative, this is an exquisitely written, emotionally resonant mystery

Writing beautifully, with a real feel for phrases and the colours of words, Anna Bailey captures life in the raw . . . A real triumph of atmospheric writing.

Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages. Beautifully written and utterly immersive.

For fans of All the Colours of the Dark and Where the Crawdads Sing, a beautiful atmospheric thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones 
 
THE TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH 
 
'Propulsive, bold and brutal...A truly atmospheric thriller.' Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of All the Colours of the Dark 
 
'Bewitching... thought provoking, character driven crime fiction.' Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train 
 
‘Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages.’ Will Dean, bestselling author of The Chamber 
 
_______ 
 
The Labasques aren’t like other families. 
 
Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. 
 
So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. 
 
Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed everything she valued most. Now, there may be no way for her to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution, if she can find out what really did happen to Cutter... 
 
Set against the haunting beauty of Southern Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is a compulsive, evocative novel about a tight-knit community and the secrets they want to keep hidden. 
‘What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting’ The Times Book of the Month 
 
‘A brooding, evocative novel’ i paper best new crime and thriller books‘The author hit the Sunday Times bestseller list with their debut… and I’m certain this will follow’ Prima‘A remarkable job of conjuring up the haunted swamplands of southern Louisiana…A particularly spicy gumbo of a thriller’ Daily Mail 
 
______ 
 
WHAT READERS & AUTHORS ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR LAST WILD DAYS: 
 
'A masterpiece...you will be hooked!' 5-star reader review 
 
'A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.' Colin Walsh, bestselling author of Kala 
 
'If you like Chris Whitaker (another Brit who does small-town America so well) this is for you' 5-star reader review 
 
'The heat and humidity sink into your bones as you are sucked into the lives of the people of the backwaters' 5-star reader review 
 
'With a setting as atmospheric as Where the Crawdads Sing...a stunningly written thriller' Nikki Smith, author of Look What You Made Me Do 
 
'A brooding atmosphere with loads of twists along the way that will keep you guessing' 5-star reader review 
 
'Exquisite. A rare, extraordinary talent' C.J.Cooke, bestselling author of The Lighthouse Witches 
 
 
'Every page is enthralling and to be read with your breath held against what's coming next.' 5-star reader review 
 
'Likely to be one of my books of the year' 5-star reader review 
 
'Filled with lines worth tattooing and passages worth framing.' Megan Collins, author of Cross my Heart 
 
'Anna Bailey is the master of things that move in the dark, with language so lush you feel like you could reach out and touch it' Hayley Scrivenor, bestselling author of Dirt Town 
 
'Raw and unflinching...a stunner.' Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour 
 
'I didn't want this one to end...a perfect crime thriller' 5-star reader review

Anna Bailey

Praise for Our Last Wild Days

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.

What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting.

A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.

What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting.

A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.

What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting.

A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.

Books by Anna Bailey

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter