Skin Deep

The sinister new novel from the No 1 bestselling author of Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait.

'Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off the floor, I needed to get out of the flat.'

Delphine Hamilton is a fake. She has been living on the Côte d'Azur for ten years, posing as an English heiress. However, her alimony is running out, her looks are fading, and her wealthy lovers are fewer and further between.

Down to her last euros, and desperate to get out of her apartment, Delphine decides to spend the day at the Negresco where she is caught stealing another guest's meal. He takes pity on her and invites her to a party. The guests are young and beautiful and Delphine feels her age, and is achingly conscious of her worn out dress. But after a few lines of cocaine and multiple cocktails, she is oblivious to everything.

Hours later, as dawn is breaking, she wakes up on the floor of a deserted hotel penthouse. She makes her way home through the back streets. Even before she opens the door she can hear the flies buzzing and she realizes that the corpse in her bedroom has already begun to decompose...

Liz Nugent's new novel is the dark, twisted and shocking story of what takes Delphine from an island childhood in Ireland to ruination in a grotty flat in Nice.