Book excerpt: A modern-day ghost story set on a remote Scottish island, While You Sleep is a page-turning, chillingly erotic Hitchcockian thriller evoking the dark atmospheric of a house that may be more than it seems . . . It begins, they say, with a woman screaming . . . On a remote Scottish island, the McBride house stands guard over its secrets. A century ago, a young widow and her son died mysteriously there; just last year a local boy, visiting for a dare, disappeared without a trace. For Zoe Adams, newly arrived from America, the house offers a refuge from her failing marriage. But her peaceful retreat is disrupted by strange and disturbing events: nighttime intrusions; unknown voices; a constant sense of being watched. The locals want her to believe that these incidents are echoes of the McBrides’ dark past. Zoe is convinced the danger is closer at hand, and all too real—but can she uncover the truth before she is silenced?