What is real and what merely a figment of the imagination? This question is grappled with by Daniel, narrator of this gripping, atmospheric novel from the author of the thriller Child 44. It is also what hooks the reader's attention throughout.

It is an ordinary day in 29-year-old Daniel's London life until he receives a phone call from his father, who has moved to a remote farm in Sweden with his wife, the cash-strapped couple hoping to "rewrite the rules of modern living". Yet far from being idyllic, the location becomes intensely sinister.

Daniel hears his father crying for the first time as he relates how his wife, Tilde, has become psychotic and has been "imagining things – terrible, terrible things" and been committed to hospital; but on discharging herself, Tilde asserts her sanity and says it is Daniel's duplicitous father who is covering up a crime. "Be objective. That's your only duty today," Tilde advises Daniel, but as more gory and disturbing details surface about the crime that his father might have committed, is it really possible to maintain objectivity?

This absorbing novel thrives on gradually revealing the intimate details of lives, showing how they become hidden not only from strangers, but from those closest to them. The relationship between parents and children is excellently explored as the author traces the toxic effect of lies and reveals some shocking home truths.