Kate Hamer

Lost, she narrowly escaped disaster. Beth is desperate to return to normality. After a five-year ordeal, her daughter is finally home. But Carmel has questions she can't ignore about the cult that kidnapped her, and about the preacher who gave her another girl's name. Found, she must survive a miracle. Digging into her past, Carmel uncovers secrets which suggest that...

Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award. Eight-year-old Carmel has always been different—sensitive, distracted, with a 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. When she takes Carmel for an outing to a local festival,...