After years of living in the harsh Australian outback, Iris Bloom returns with her ailing husband to her hometown in the south. Old memories surface and begin to disturb and haunt her. Iris tries to make sense of her murky past through her writing. But she discovers that dangerous writing can sometimes have fatal consequences. Fearing she might reveal a dark secret they buried long ago, Iris's family refuse to accept her back into the fold. After her death, Iris leaves her unpublished manuscript - dedicated to someone called Rose - in the hands of her solicitor. Iris's letters are interwoven with her stories about intriguing but deeply troubled characters. Just what is fact and what is fiction in the stories Iris leaves behind? Why does this matter so? And who is Rose? Immensely readable, this psychological mystery is both emotionally shocking, but captivating until the end. 'The spirit of Australian Gothic survives and thrives in Mary Pomfret's Hard Seed, although few rural mysteries are as profound, or as captivating.' Laurie Steed