Victoria Gosling's BEFORE THE RUINS is a gripping, multilayered debut in the tradition of Donna Tartt and Tana French about four friends, an abandoned manor and one fateful night that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

It's the summer of 1996, and school is out forever for Andy, her boyfriend Marcus, her best friend Peter, and Em. When Andy's alcoholic mother predicts the apocalypse, the four teenagers decide to see out the end of the world at a deserted manor house, the site of a historic unsolved mystery. There they meet David; charming and unreliable, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

David presents an irresistible lure for both Andy and Peter and complicates the dynamics of their lifelong friendship. When the group learns that a diamond necklace, stolen 50 years ago, might still be somewhere on the manor grounds, the Game --- half treasure hunt, half friendly deception --- begins. But the Game becomes much bigger than the necklace, growing to encompass years of secrets, lies and, ultimately, one terrible betrayal.

Meticulously plotted and gorgeously written, BEFORE THE RUINS is a page-turner of the highest order about the sealed-off places in our pasts and the parts of ourselves waiting to be retrieved from them.

Audiobook available, read by Kristin Atherton