What price would you pay for love?

Esther Wilson is thirty and single. She has been nowhere, done nothing, loved no one except her recently deceased grandfather. Her life is one of routine and order, following the same pattern week after week. That is, until she meets Raymond Banks.

Raymond is unassuming but insistent, and each conversation with him brings Esther further out of her shell. He alters her awareness of the world, and their budding love is soon cemented with a proposal. For the first time ever, she feels truly alive.

But marriage to Raymond brings a different kind of order, one of increasing control and possession. When Esther discovers something that threatens their happiness, she is forced to decide whether true love really should conquer all.

An unsettling portrait of love in all its guises, A Spring of Love asks the most sinister question of all – can we ever truly know anyone?

‘Brings her unsettling yet delightful prose to a new readership.’ Financial Times

‘She more than earns her title as a master of the domestic thriller.’ Big Issue

‘A timeless classic.’ Sunday Post

‘Sinister and emotionally complex . . . this menacing tale of manipulation twists and turns to the last shocking sentence.’ Daily Mail

‘No one does psychological acuity or a certain English nastiness so brilliantly.’ China Miéville

‘A page-turning novel, which is filmic, tense, poignant and surprising in both plot and attitudes.’ The Bookseller, Book of the Month

‘A Spring of Love showcases Dale’s observational powers at their height . . . You really need some Celia Dale in your life.’ Crack magazine

‘Dale is firmly one of my favourite writers.’ Sheena Patel

‘Queen of the eerie, Celia Dale takes you on an unforgettable tale.’ Stylist

‘A perfectly sinister read.’ Vogue

‘The queen of suburban horror . . . a sharply observant writer with a great eye for detail, her accuracy, understanding and quiet wit made her writing a cut above the run-of-the-mill crime novel.’ The Times

‘With her eye for moral bankruptcy and what lies beneath seemingly respectable façades, Dale creates a world that is uniquely, wonderfully horrifying.’ Spectator