Paperback: 361 pages
Genre: Fiction, Thriller,
Publisher: Faber and Faber 2023
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentences: No one ever knew what happened to Mercy Roberts
Review Quote: At once deeply unsettling and profoundly hopeful, Kate Hamer's follow-up to The Girl in the Red Coat is a novel about loss, healing and redemption. ― Women's Weekly
Setting: U.S.A. and England
My Opinion:
I was introduced to this authors writing back in 2017 when she came to Tywyn to speak at a Literary Dinner. Since then I have continued to take an interest in her work. Having read the prequel ‘The Girl in the Red Coat’ to this latest novel it was imperative I read ‘The Lost Girls.’ Although it is a stand alone story, I personally appreciated the fact that I had read the previous novel.
Three traumatised protagonists, Carmel Mercy and Beth relate their stories to the reader. Carmel was abducted as a young child then eight years later she is reunited with her mother Beth. A guilt ridden mother and a troubled daughter who have trouble not surprisingly relating to each other. Carmel also frequently dreams of another lost child and carries out a heart breaking search for answers.
What a haunting tale! I do find Kate Hamer’s style of writing rather disturbing, but her novels including this one are always captivating. I do not hesitate in recommending this author.
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
Beth is desperate to return to normality. After a years-long ordeal, her daughter is finally home and safe. 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 she wasn't the only lost girl - and which puts her in danger all over again. While her mother struggles to salvage the safety they've only just found, Carmel tries to come to terms with who she has become. One question, a mystery at the heart of her disappearance as a child, haunts her:
What happened to the other lost girls?
Previous Reviews: The Girl in the Red Coat. Crushed.
Author Profile:
Courtesy of Goodreads
Kate Hamer is also the author of CRUSHED (2019) and THE DOLL FUNERAL (2017) which was a Bookseller book of the month and an editor's pick for Radio 4's Open Book. Her first novel THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT (Faber & Faber, 2015) was shortlisted for The Costa First Novel Prize, the British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, the John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger and the Wales Book of the Year. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into 18 different languages. Kate grew up in the West country and rural Pembrokeshire and now lives with her husband in Cardiff.
Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:
Amazon Author Page Twitter - Kate Hamer Kate Hamer - Official Author Website
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