In 1949, rising novelist Euan travels to a remote island at the invitation of his reclusive mentor, the legendary Malcolm Furnivall.
Malcolm has also gathered his loved ones to the island and tells Euan he needs help completing his masterpiece: one final book. But days later, he’s found dead, and Euan narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life.
As Euan searches for the killer and Malcolm’s missing masterpiece, the island reveals stranger secrets. Past and present blur, as Euan races to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.
A mystery steeped in ambition, grief, and the cyclical curse of legacy, The Lost Author is a haunting exploration of time and the stories that bind us.
About the Author
Chris Barkley was appointed Writer in Residence by the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022. He won the Oxford University Kellogg Writing Competition in 2021, as well as the Bedford International Writing Prize. He has been shortlisted for the Cambridge Short Story Prize, and has had prose published in TSS, National Flash Fiction, Darling Axe and the Writers of the Future anthology. He lives in Edinburgh and teaches creative writing at Yale University.