On a stormy night, while crossing the Severn Bridge, Jackie loses everything...
The accident leaves her twin sister dead and Jackie struggling to piece together a life from the wreckage. Music - the one thing that once gave her purpose - has become an unbearable reminder, and the future stretches out as a dull routine of work, migraines and regret.
But grief is never simple, and soon Jackie begins to see impossible things: a funeral coach appearing where the accident happened, ghostly musicians performing in the night and a pale violinist who claims to carry messages from Death.
The offer he brings is simple. If Jackie can make the cold and heartless undertaker, Massicott, cry using nothing but her music, her sister's soul will be released.
Driven by a guilt she cannot escape, Jackie agrees to the wager.
Her search draws her into the orbit of the Last Drop club, a strange gathering of artists, musicians, and lost souls who meet above a fading pub beside Arnos Vale Cemetery. Among them she finds friendship, temptation, and a growing sense that the boundary between the living and the dead is thinner than anyone believes.
Yet the closer Jackie comes to winning Death's game, the more the past begins to surface, revealing truths she has been desperately trying to forget, and a price for redemption that may be more than Jackie can bear.
The Certainty of Dust is perfect for adult readers who enjoy literary fiction with psychological and supernatural elements, particularly stories exploring grief, guilt, mortality and redemption.
