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Kate Hamer
The Lost Girls

Kate Hamer explores her latest book, The Lost Girls, the stand-alone sequel to Costa First Novel Award shortlisted The Girl in the Red Coat. An enchanting, intense crime novel which sees a girl coming to grips with her past and a mother trying to keep her safe it is a deeply moving story about healing, connection, and the power of the past.

Canvey Island Library, High Street, Canvey Island, SS8 7RB
Tickets: £8 / £7
Box Office: Online or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

About the book

The stand-alone sequel to Costa First Novel Award shortlisted The Girl in the Red Coat.

Lost, she narrowly escaped disaster.

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’re 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?

‘A slow-burning beauty of a book’ – Red
‘Mesmerising, compulsive, deliciously dark’ – Lucy Foley
‘A beautifully written, intense novel that is both thought-provoking and unsettling – in some places a terrifying read.’ – Lisa Ballantyne

About the author

Kate Hamer grew up in the West Country and Wales. She studied art and worked for a number of years in television. In 2011 she won the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition and her short stories have appeared in various collections.

Her debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat was published in 2015. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Aware, the British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and the Wales Book of the Year. It was followed by the acclaimed The Doll Funeral in 2017. Kate now lives with her husband in Cardiff.