A small girl has been locked inside the kitchen of an apartment in which her baby-sitter has been murdered. It is Christmas week; her mother is dead, her father away on business. No one will miss her until he returns. Can she free herself before the murderer realizes his mistake and comes back to kill her?

Patricia Carlon lives near Sydney, Australia. She has written fourteen crime novels, including Souvenir, The Whispering Wall, The Running Woman, The Price of an Orphan, Crime of Silence, and The Unquiet Night, which are available from Soho Crime.

"The suspense and the feeling of isolation . . . make this a first-class chiller."(Evening Standard)

"An echo of Ruth Rendell . . . page-turning suspense." (Mostly Murder)