Francis Cottam

When things start to go badly wrong for James Greer in London, Brodmaw Bay seems to be calling him and his family. There's a perfect house, excellent schools - and welcoming neighbours who assure the Greers that they'd be delighted to have some new blood in the Bay. But perhaps the village isn't so much welcoming them as luring them.

Fifteen hundred soldiers died at Slapton Sands during training for the D-Day landings, but no one seems to want to know why. Thirty-two years later, an American student arrives determined to discover the true story of their tragic sacrifice, but her presence is unwelcome.

The waiting room stands on a crumbling railway platform at the edge of a retired rock star's vast estate. Isolated by a moat of thorny wilderness, it used to be a playground for his children. Until strange music and the terrifying spectre of a leering soldier frightened them away.