Or I'd be walking up the stairs and she'd chase me with it. And I think that's what I was channelling and it fitted in to all the other things that I was haunted by.” The revelation that 'Terby' is in fact 'Y Bret' (Why, Bret?) spelled backwards is an homage to the "redrum" (murder spelled backwards) plot device in King's "The Shining". The book carries an epigraph from Hamlet 1.v.98. This connects with the theme of haunting by a father as well as the names in the book (e.g. Elsinore, Osric, Fortinbras). The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the Best Novel category in 2004.