One Came Back

"On impact, the boy seemed to fold down and disappear, as if maybe he hadn't been there in the first place..."

It's New Year's Eve in Edinburgh when Emily sees Nicky. Or at least she thinks she does. He looks, laughs, and moves just like Nicky. But how can that be? Nicky died when they were teenagers, in an accident on a remote road up in the Highlands... didn't he?

A week later, Emily sees the man again. He says his name Nicholas. This man not only looks like an adult version of her friend, but he also knows things that only Nicky should know.

As her encounters with Nicholas become more frequent and her fixation intensifies, the truth becomes murkier, and more unsettling.

Is Emily being haunted, is she going mad - or is something altogether darker going on...

ONE CAME BACK is a powerfully tense debut novel combining the chill of the modern gothic with the hook of a thriller, exploring the depths of grief, memory, and obsession.

Rose McDonagh's writing has won the Bath Flash Fiction Award and been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the London Magazine Short Story Competition, the Dinesh Allirajah Prize and the Bristol Prize. She was longlisted for the Caledonia First Novel Award and the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Her debut short story collection, THE DOG HUSBAND was published by Reflex Press in 2022.

She is trained as a counsellor and has several years of experience working in trauma support and community health. She was born in Edinburgh and lives in Scotland with her husband.

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