The jaw-dropping, page-turning, critically-acclaimed book of the year: a serial-killer thriller unlike any other from the award-winning Lauren Beukes. 'GONE GIRL has not exactly gone. But THE SHINING GIRLS have arrived' (The Times).

It's not my fault. It's yours. You shouldn't shine. You shouldn't make me do this.

Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature - it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades - and cut the spark out of them.

He's the perfect killer. Unstoppable. Untraceable. He thinks...

Chicago, 1992. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Tell that to Kirby Mazrachi, whose life was shattered after a brutal attempt to murder her. Still struggling to find her attacker, her only ally is Dan, an ex-homicide reporter who covered her case and now might be falling in love with her.

As Kirby investigates, she finds the other girls - the ones who didn't make it. The evidence is ... impossible. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn't mean it didn't happen...