Split Second - August 2026 Crime Collective

About the book

When schoolgirls start fainting one after the other at a convent boarding school, old legends twist into new scandals. From irresistible bestselling storyteller Erin Kelly comes the new thriller that will leave you craving to read more.

'Had me hooked from page one. . . a twisty, confounding mystery' JENNIE GODFREY

'Creates a world that pulls you in and won't let go. Deliciously dark and satisfying' JANE FALLON

Centuries of tradition are coming to an end at St Cordula's school. Deputy Head, Fiona Fox, is about to preside over a controversial move to save it from ruin. But it’s not easy to change things at a school this old.

Legend has it that the ghost of fifteenth-century nun, Sister Matilda, will keep St Cordula’s safe. But only as long as the words ‘GOD FORGIVE ME’, scrawled by Matilda on a chapel staircase wall before she fell to her death, are repainted every year. The words have only been allowed to fade once, in 2002. But then, fits of vertigo spread through the pupils, and a second girl fell to her death on the night stairs. Only three people know the truth of what happened on the night of the tragedy.

Now the vertigo is back, and Fiona must stem the outbreak before it threatens St Cordula’s future, or worse, another girl loses her life. But when one of her pupils begins a dangerous investigation into the past, old secrets start to twist into new scandals…

The perfect smart beach read for this summer.

'Erin Kelly can do no wrong, and in this boarding-school thriller, she does everything right...a complex and beautifully written gothic thriller...I raced through it' CLARE MACKINTOSH

'Relentlessly gripping...Original, atmospheric, and deliciously dark' LUCY CLARKE

'Outstanding...as much an insightful novel about female friendship and betrayal as it is a compelling mystery' JANE CASEY

'A stylish and utterly compulsive read from one of my favourite storytellers' RUTH WARE

'I was totally absorbed by the claustrophobia and Gothic dread of St Cordula’s... Clever, ingenious and gripping' SABINE DURRANT