'One of their very best. Compelling, moving and beautifully written . . . an absolute winner' Observer

‘Classic Nicci French: an unputdownable missing-persons thriller that’s also a searing examination of family, memory and grief. A big-skied, full-blooded, broken-hearted book' Erin Kelly

She’s loved by all who meet her. But someone wants her gone . . .

Then

When beautiful and vivacious Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party, her kids are worried, but Alec is not. As the days pass and there’s still no word from Charlie, her daughter, Etty, and her sons, Niall, Paul and Ollie, all struggle to come to terms with her disappearance.

How can anyone just vanish without a trace?

Left with no answers and in limbo, the Salter children try and go on with their lives, all the while thinking that their mother’s killer is potentially very close to home.

Now

After years away, Etty returns home to the small East Anglian village where she grew up to help move her father into a care home. Now in his eighties, Alec has dementia and often mistakes his daughter for her mother.

Etty is a changed woman from the trouble-free girl she was when Charlie was still around - all the Salter children have spent decades running and hiding from their mother’s disappearance.

But when their childhood friends, Greg and Morgen Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance, it seems like the town’s buried secrets – and the Salters’ – might finally come to light.

After all this time, will they finally find out what really happened to Charlotte Salter?

PRAISE FOR NICCI FRENCH:

'Fantastic - a breathless drumbeat of dread and suspense . . . no one does it better than Nicci French' Lee Child

'Expertly paced, psychologically sharp, thoroughly enjoyable' Louise Candlish

'Heart-thumping, head-scratching, nail-biting stuff' Erin Kelly

'Perfection' Sophie Hannah

'No-one does the dark distortion of good intentions like Nicci French' Cara Hunter

'An absolute masterclass of crime writing' Kate Rhodes

'As well as a fantastic mystery, Nicci French has written a powerful, moving and wise story about the damage that loss does to families, with characters you can’t forget. I loved it' Jo Callaghan