Investigative journalist Shona Sandison is attending the wedding of her closest friend and former colleague, Vivienne. But the night before the wedding, Vivienne's reclusive school friend, Dan, jumps from a roof to his death. Shona is the only witness to the suicide - and so the only person who saw the occult tattoos covering Dan's body, and heard the unsettling, mystical phrases he was uttering.

Compelled to look further into the tragic incident, Shona sets off on a quest to find out why Dan killed himself and what happened to Vivienne's missing brother 20 years prior. Despite knowing that investigating Viv's family will mean she could lose her friend forever, Shona travels to a small, forgotten town in the north of England to investigate an insular group of classmates who have held a dark secret for decades.

Haunting and hypnotic, The Hollow Tree is a return to Philip Miller's dark world of subterfuge, betrayal, and fragile justice.

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'this is writing of the highest quality'

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'The Hollow Tree is not short of lurid incident, but the novel’s noise is embedded within a powerful sense of place and time and a real understanding of human psychology. It may be Miller’s best novel yet'

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'The Hollow Tree deftly weaves into a tortuous string of mysteries, dark supernatural threads... a wholly unnerving tale'

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'this time around it's darker and more dangerous with a large slice of devilry... it's a great crossover of genres in that it's both crime and horror... a thrilling read'

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'A compelling and rewarding crime novel where the focus sits with a journalist as she investigates links between the occult and a death by suicide'

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'This second novel is to be highly rated for mood, atmosphere, ingenuity and narrative'