WHAT happens when a soul is transferred to another body -- when a person becomes possessed ... especially when that soul is malignant?

And what would the consequences be if a person you'd prefer to leave in your past appeared before you in the body a current friend?

Greg Iles, whose brilliantly taut thriller 24 Hours is to be released on the big screen under the title Trapped in the autumn, has created a chilling scenario in which a happily married man is forced to confront the girl he had affair with in his youth.

She was a deeply unbalanced person, abused as a child, whose determination not to die has given her the key to spiritual eternity. So determined is she that now she has the power to destroy his marriage, his business and the trust and friendships he has built over the years. With this terrifying intrusion into his life, he now must find a way out, or her living death will possess him too. Iles is a master storyteller. In his hands, this devastating situation becomes all too real, and the stranglehold he puts on the reader does not slacken until the last line.

Published by Hodder and Stoughton at £18.99.