Lying on a lounger outside a flyblown café near Naples, Mike reflects on the last three months. He’d set off for the wedding of the charismatic Al, whose closed community is in the Calder Valley. Three months later, Mike’s wearing a white robe, standing over an open grave.

Alan Newcombe vividly immerses us in the life of Gritstone House. There’s no electricity or running water – or contact with the outside world. And Al pulls the strings in a house where there’s fraud, secret burials, and clandestine murder.

Gothic, serious, yet brimming with wit and humour, Gritstone is an impressive debut.