A hard-hitting tale of abduction, prostitution, child abuse, family secrets and betrayal. With a few red herrings scattered around to confuse, a gritty sense of real-life drama and a page-turning compulsion, this is a sort of misery memoir (albeit fiction) mixed with a contemporary saga. It’s an area about to expand as the popularity for real life stories of child torment and abuse catch the novelist’s imagination.
January 1992. A baby girl is left alone for a moment. Long enough for a mother to dash into a shop. Long enough for a child to be taken.
Thirteen years later, solicitor Robert Knight`s stepdaughter wins a place at a prestigious school for the gifted. The only puzzle is his wife Erin`s reaction. Why is she so reluctant to let Ruby go? Doesn`t she want what`s best for her? As Erin grows more evasive, Robert can`t help but feel she has something to hide, and when he stumbles on mysterious letters, he discovers she has been lying to him. Somewhere in his wife`s past lies a secret; a shocking secret that threatens to destroy everything…
Sam Hayes grew up in the Midlands, and has lived in Australia and America. Her writing career began when she won a short story competition in 2003. She lives in a three-hundred-year-old farmhouse in a Leicestershire village with her Australian husband and three children.
