"LAST CHANCE." Nika looks in the mirror one Sunday morning, feeling rather hungover, to see this message daubed on the glass. Who wrote it? And what does it mean? Where are Nika’s house keys and her phone? Where’s Jenny, her flatmate? And why does she feel so terrible this morning – surely she didn’t have that much to drink last night? It’s only when she turns on the TV and sees the morning news that Nika realises it’s not Sunday at all – it’s Tuesday. Two whole days have gone by, and she has no memory of them. During those two days something terrible must have happened. But what?

With Aquila, Ursula Poznanski has produced a true psychological thriller. She tells the story almost entirely in reverse, keeping the reader on tenterhooks until the very last page. Not until the shocking twist at the end of the book do we find out what really happened to Nika during those two lost days.