Shadow Cat Summer

Twins Katrina and Alex normally live on a houseboat in London, but are spending the summer in Scotland while their mum, a brilliant musician, receives treatment. Aunt Clara is an artist, like Alex, and Uncle Archie is a forest ranger. Almost right away, the twins find themselves searching for what seems to be a big cat. Or, is something stalking them? "Rebecca Smith writes with such subtlety about the lives of twins Alex and Katrina, uprooted from an uncertain life in a London houseboat after their vulnerable mother is found collapsed and in need of rehab. Up in the Scottish Highlands, despite the idyllic landscape and the loving support of their aunt and uncle, something fearsome is prowling in the shadows. Could the deep scratches on a tree and the attacks on local livestock be the work of something bigger and wilder than a fox or a dog? Has Alex really seen it outside in the night? Or are he and his sister just being stalked by their own dark fears while they wait to find out whether their mother will recover? A wonderfully atmospheric and lyrical story, unsentimental but so affecting." - Ali Sparkes