Joanne Gallagher

Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

A young mother is forced to face the truth of her past life as her daughter approaches adolescence and strives for new freedom.

"There are many rumours surrounding Old Joe’s Field. There always have been. Rumours about the disappearance of Old Joe’s son long ago. The tales of what could possibly lurk in that field, beyond that fence. The stories of the noises people have heard or the things people have seen there in the dark. Then there is the challenge. It is a challenge of bravery. Many of the children are doing it. In the dead of night, whoever can stand at the fence to that field the longest is the bravest. It is a challenge that sounds simple, but, as three young friends are about to find out, may not be as easy as it seems. Especially when those rumours may actually be true…"