The Girl in the Red Coat

"Immediately recalls the explosion of similarly titled books and movies, from Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels to The Girl on the Train to Gone Girl … "—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
 
 
Newly single mom Beth has one constant, gnawing worry: that her dreamy eight-year-old daughter, Carmel, who has a tendency to wander off, will one day go missing.
 
And then one day, it happens: On a Saturday morning thick with fog, Beth takes Carmel to a local outdoor festival, they get separated in the crowd, and Carmel is gone.
 
Shattered, Beth sets herself on the grim and lonely mission of finding her daughter, keeping on relentlessly even as the authorities tell her that Carmel may be gone for good.
 
Carmel, meanwhile, is on a strange and harrowing journey of her own—to a totally unexpected place that requires her to live by her wits, while trying desperately to keep in her head, at all times, a vision of her mother…
 
Alternating between Beth’s story and Carmel’s, and written in gripping prose that won’t let go, The Girl in the Red Coat is an utterly immersive story that’s impossible to put down…and impossible to forget.

KATE HAMER is a winner of the Rhys Davies Short Story Prize. Her first novel, Girl in the Red Coat was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for First Novel and was a finalist for The Dagger Award. Her second novel, The Doll Funeral was described by the Guardian as evoking both Jeanette Winterson and Ian McEwan. She lives in Cardiff, Wales with her husband and two children. She can be found online at katehamer.co.uk