The Girl in the Red Coat

by Kate Hamer

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!**

• ISBN10: 0571313256
• ISBN13: 9780571313259
• Publish Date: 24 February 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The book is interesting, but the writing is a little simplistic and the ending came very quickly. It read like an episode of SVU but without the detectives. A well-done crime novel, infuriating and believable, but not recommended for anyone with young children.