This long-awaited novel from a best-selling pen is probably the most unsettling and complex in the whole, extraordinary Waiters canon, stamped more dearly than ever with the hallmark of her furious compassion. The drama stays taut until the last page which may, by the way, make you weep'- Frances Fyfield, Sunday Express

Acid Row. The name the beleaguered inhabitants give to tile place they live. A no-nlan's-land of single mothers and fatherless children where angry, alienated teenagers control tile streets.

Into this battleground conies Sophie Morrison, a young doctor visiting a patient in Acid Row. Little does she know that she is entering tile honle of a known paedophile. And with reports circulating that a tormented child called Anly has disappeared, tile vigilantes are out in force . . .Soon Sophie is trapped at tile centre of a terrifying siege,with a man she has conle to despise.

Whipped to a frenzy by unsubstantiated ltlmour, the mob unleashes its hatrec]. Against authority, the law - and the 'pervert'. 'Protecting Amy' beconles tile catch-all defence for the terrible events that follow. And if nlurder is part of it,then so be it...