The Girl in the Red Coat

A stand-out debut, THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT is the page-turning and hugely moving story of an abduction that will appeal to fans of THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS, ROOM and THE SNOW CHILD.

Eight-year-old Carmel has always been different - sensitive, distracted, with an heartstopping tendency to go missing. Her mother Beth, newly single, worries about her daughter's strangeness, especially as she is trying to rebuild a life for the two of them on her own.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award
Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award

'Mesmerising, compulsive, deliciously dark' LUCY FOLEY

Carmel is missing - but doesn't know she's lost.

When sensitive, distracted eight-year-old Carmel becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, a man claiming to be her estranged grandfather finds her - and takes her.

Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth makes it her mission to find her. But in what she's told is her new family, Carmel has embarked on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is - and who she might become.

'Keeps the reader turning pages at a frantic clip . . . What's most powerful here is not whodunnit, or even why, but how this mother and daughter bear their separation.' CELESTE NG

**Carmel and Beth's story continues in The Lost Girls - pre-order now!**