Under the Harrow

A Novel

By: Flynn Berry

Narrated by: Ell Potter

"A thriller for fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl...[with] a striking, original voice all Berry’s own.”—The New York Times Book Review

The riveting, Edgar Award-winning first novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Northern Spy and A Double Life

When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.

Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.

A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, Under the Harrow marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.

Named one of the "10 Best Mystery Books and Thrillers of the Year" by The Washington Post

Named one of the best books of the year by The Atlantic

©2016 Flynn Berry (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A thrilling novel of psychological suspense…Under the Harrow contains similarities [to The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl] that will undoubtedly attract readers–but underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original voice all Berry’s own…[Her] precise sentences call to mind Hitchcock’s meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope.”—Elizabeth Brundage, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

"Exquisitely taut and intense. . . There’s a subtle strain of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic, Rebecca, in Under the Harrow. . . . [But] Under the Harrow is such a superbly crafted psychological thriller, it deserves to be celebrated for its own singular excellence."—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

"A brisk and chilling psychological study about grief, paranoia, and memory; a smart portrait of a complex sibling relationship; and, more than anything, an effective murder mystery...Berry takes some of the big social struggles that have animated the feminist movement and makes them specific and personal, exploring the rippling effects of power imbalances across individual lives. There’s nothing pedantic about the taut, tricky narrative, though. Like solving the whodunit, finding the bigger meaning is simply a matter of paying attention."—The Atlantic, "The Best Books We Read in 2016"