The Girl Who Never Came Back

I couldn’t bring her home. I’ll risk my life to find out why…

Paris 1945. I sent nineteen-year-old Phyllis, my youngest recruit, into a city crawling with enemy soldiers. And this beautiful house on a tree-lined street, the headquarters of cold-hearted German soldiers, was the last place she was seen. I trail my fingers along the gilded furniture and see the light dance off the glittering chandeliers. On the top floor, I find the dates inscribed by beaten prisoners, and I know my girl was shown no mercy.

I am desperate to find the girl I sent into danger, the girl I told to lie to her family about where she was going. She was excited to be doing her bit, hiding in plain sight in a city thronged with enemy troops. But she was young and naïve, and it was my job to make her understand the peril she would face. Is it my fault she is missing?

As I search for the answers her family are begging for, I learn that the girl I swore to protect was moved around in secret. The trail takes me through France to the German countryside, to emptied labour camps and places of ghosts and hopelessness. When I find a message scratched on a food tin in a damp cell, I know I am getting closer to Phyllis at last.

But there are some who want the secrets of the war to be left in the past. Someone is sending me threatening letters. And in finding answers about the girl who haunts my dreams, will I be putting myself into terrible danger?

A heartbreaking, and completely unputdownable World War Two page-turner about the extraordinary bravery of women in the war. Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and The Midwife of Auschwitz will be utterly glued to this unforgettable novel.