The Lost Girls
by Kate Hamer
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Feb 16 2023 | Archive Date Feb 23 2023
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Description
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 she wasn’t the only lost girl – and which put 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. But she remains haunted by the mystery at the heart of her disappearance as a child:
What happened to the other lost girls?
Advance Praise
PRAISE FOR THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT
'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, and the stories they tell themselves to help endure it.'
Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You
'Moving, convincing and completely compelling. I read through the night, desperate to know the little girl's fate.'
Erin Kelly, author of The Poison Tree
'An intense, and tense, stunning debut. Early on we encounter a maze, but the whole book is a kind of maze, and one full of striking imagery and chilling atmosphere. Kate Hamer conjures mystery with such grace, cool beauty and urgent suspense it never feels like a debut. Brilliant.'
Matt Haig, author of The Humans
'Compulsively readable, Kate Hamer catches at the threads of what parents fear most - the abduction of a child - and weaves a disturbing and original story. There is menace in this book, lurking in the shadows on every page, but also innocence, love and hope. Beautifully written and unpredictable, I had to stop myself racing to the end to find out what happened.'
Rosamund Lupton, author of Sister
'Kate Hamer's novel is both gripping and sensitive - beautifully written, it is a compulsive, aching story full of loss and redemption.'
Lisa Ballantyne, author of The Guilty One
'Thought provoking and emotionally tender, The Girl in the Red Coat is a remarkable debut novel.'
Paula Daly, author of Just What Kind of Mother Are You?
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780571336715 |
| PRICE | £8.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 631762
Oh my gosh!! What a beautiful book. I was rooting for Carmel and Beth the whole way through.
Kate Hamer really knows how to bring characters to life, she did it in The Girl In The Red Coat and she’s surely surpassed herself this time,
I loved learning more about Mercy and her fate. I love Carmel as an adult. She was great as an eight year old too.
With huge thanks to the publisher and Kate Hamer for once again taking us into the hearts and minds of Carmel, Beth and Mercy.
Valerie C, Reviewer
What an unusual and enjoyable book. This is the tale of two girls aged 8, kidnapped by a preacher who is more interested in their gift of healing to make money. He trails them around the world on his preaching tour until he is caught and jailed.
This is also the story of their fight back to normality after 5 years locked up with the preacher.
Well worth a read.
Julie H, Reviewer
Was privileged to be offered the chance to read this sequel through NetGalley having loved The Girl in the Red Coat and, while it was very different, I was not disappointed! I loved the uncompromising and real feeling of the difficult relationship between the mother and daughter at the centre of the story. Carmel was found and returned to her ‘home’ but that was never going to be easy and, personally, I was relieved it wasn’t all rosy as that would not have been realistic. Both mother and daughter had to find a way through, a way to ‘be’ with each other and some acceptance of things they couldn’t change.
Alongside this was the story of Mercy and what happened to her. Her upbringing and life before she left home was poles apart from Carmel’s but there were interesting parallels. Their lives with the ‘preacher’ or ‘pastor’ were very similar. Both girls lost their freedom, were caring of others and learnt to serve at an early age.
The Lost Girls is not a book that wraps up everything neatly in a bow for its readers! Instead it challenges you, it forces you to consider what the reality of the situation might really be and it makes you take a good hard look at things. Could you accept what Carmel is like as an adult? Could you even begin to understand what she went through? Could you support her even if what she was considering was total anathema to you? Could you even like her?
So, if you love a book filled with complex characters and lots of challenges, then read this one! I highly recommend it!
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