With the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, and the atmospheric suspense of The Girls: a compulsive debut novel about that explores the aftershock of a brutal crime on the women of a small Texas oil town.

‘Fierce and complex, Valentine is a novel of moral urgency and breath-taking prose. This is the very definition of a stunning debut’ Ann Patchett 

Mercy is hard in a place like this. I wished him dead before I ever saw his face…

Mary Rose Whitehead isn’t looking for trouble – but when it shows up at her front door, she finds she can’t turn away. 

Corinne Shepherd, newly widowed, wants nothing more than to mind her own business, and for everyone else to mind theirs. But when the town she has spent years rebelling against closes ranks she realises she is going to have to take a side. 

Debra Ann is motherless and lonely and in need of a friend. But in a place like Odessa, Texas, choosing who to trust can be a dangerous game. 

Gloria Ramírez, fourteen years old and out of her depth, survives the brutality of one man only to face the indifference and prejudices of many. 

When justice is as slippery as oil, and kindness becomes a hazardous act, sometimes courage is all we have to keep us alive.