Kids cover up a death with fake DNA — then the dead boy comes back.
Who drives the story
The silent one who eats ice cream through Leah's monologues until the group needs a plan — then he takes charge with chilling logic. He orders the frame-up, then Adam's death, and speaks his first real threat at Leah: 'No, you're not.'
Phil's one-sided confidante, filling every field scene with talk about death, bonobos and doubt. She leaves, returns, and finally chooses conscience over the group — and is threatened for it.
The dare-giver whose refusal to tell anyone turns an accident into a cover-up. He insists they'll be blamed and holds the line even when John Tate wobbles toward the police.
Mark's companion on the street, the first to say they don't know Adam is dead and the first to say they must tell someone. Her conscience loses to Mark's fear.
The finder of the postman to frame, and the one Phil calls 'the coldest' — so she's the one sent to kill Adam. She returns with 'It's done' and a wallet.
The fragile one who claims the fleece evidence, then confesses he invented it out of fear. He also saw Adam alive in the grille — and was told he imagined it.
Threatened by John Tate to keep order, later the messenger of good news — the body found, the postman arrested — and co-finder of Adam in the hedge.
The boy dared to cross a beam over a grille, presumed dead, then found alive in a hedge. His second death is the group's deliberate one.
Also in the story
The self-declared leader who rules the wood by threat until real panic hits. He wants to go to the police — and is overruled by Mark and outmanoeuvred by Phil.
With Richard, he discovers Adam living in a hedge near the shopping centre — the revelation that turns the cover-up into a killing.
How they are connected
The silent one who eats ice cream through Leah's monologues until the group needs a plan — then he takes charge with chilling logic.
He orders the frame-up, then Adam's death, and speaks his first real threat at Leah: 'No, you're not.
He insists they'll be blamed and holds the line even when John Tate wobbles toward the police.
Mark's companion on the street, the first to say they don't know Adam is dead and the first to say they must tell someone.
Mark's companion on the street, the first to say they don't know Adam is dead and the first to say they must tell someone.
He wants to go to the police — and is overruled by Mark and outmanoeuvred by Phil.
The finder of the postman to frame, and the one Phil calls 'the coldest' — so she's the one sent to kill Adam.
The finder of the postman to frame, and the one Phil calls 'the coldest' — so she's the one sent to kill Adam.
He also saw Adam alive in the grille — and was told he imagined it.
Threatened by John Tate to keep order, later the messenger of good news — the body found, the postman arrested — and co-finder of Adam in the hedge.
Threatened by John Tate to keep order, later the messenger of good news — the body found, the postman arrested — and co-finder of Adam in the hedge.
With Richard, he discovers Adam living in a hedge near the shopping centre — the revelation that turns the cover-up into a killing.
Go deeper
Groupthink and the surrender of the individual · Silence as power · Guilt, denial and the cost of lying · Nature versus civilisation
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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