Margot Lewis is a classics teacher in a Cambridge school. She's also the agony aunt for the local newspaper, dealing with problems from the loneliness of a recent widower to a teenager wondering if she might be pregnant. The disappearance of local girl Katie Browne, a former student, is weighing on her mind when she receives a letter in childish handwriting from a Bethan Avery, begging for help: "I've been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I'm afraid he'll kill me." But Bethan vanished decades earlier, and the police brush away Margot's worries. Author Helen Callaghan, a former bookseller, intersperses scenes of Katie being held in a cellar by a violent man with Margot's attempts to get to the bottom of the letters she is receiving in this compulsive, intelligent thriller which I gulped down in a few nights. A dark and intriguing debut.
Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for The Cambridge Examiner. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters - but none like the one she's just received: Dear Amy, I don't know where I am. I've been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I'm afraid he'll kill me. Please help me soon, Bethan Avery Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax. But, as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything ...
Helen Callaghan was born in California to British parents and her early years were spent in both the US and UK. After several early false starts as barmaid, drama student, and nurse, she settled into bookselling, working as a fiction specialist and buyer for Athena Bookshop, Dillons and Waterstones over the next eight years. Though she loved life as a bookseller, Helen was drawn back to her studies. This decision proved to be rather a good one, and after studying for her A-levels at night school, she achieved a place to read Archaeology at Cambridge University as a mature student. Her interests include medieval cookery, hiking, running, and travel. She is fascinated by the past, and can frequently be found haunting ancient monuments. She blogs about these enthusiasms at www.helencallaghan.co.uk She now runs her own business and lives in Cambridge.
