Chosen, By Lesley Glaister

When Dodie's teenage brother disappears after their mother's suicide, she's baffled. Desperate to find him, she leaves her baby son behind in Sheffield to follow his trail to the Soul Life Centre: an enclosed community in Upstate New York.

Greeted by ever-smiling women and plied with muffins, she finds herself being drawn into the anodyne cult that has already appropriated her brother.

A polished storyteller with an appreciation for gothic detail, Glaister in her terrifying scenario illustrates how easily intelligent people can be drawn to honeyed voices and charismatic teachings.

Bringing together Dodie's story with that of her dead mother's, the book delivers a satisfying denouement. Fiction that trades in long kept secrets and shameful trangressions.