Sleep Sister: A page-turning novel of psychological suspense
Page 35
It's every mother's worst nightmare. Carla Kelly wakes to find her two-day-old baby daughter's cot empty. Isobel has been taken.
Susanne Dowling has kept a terrible secret following her fifth agonising miscarriage. When at last she welcomes her new baby daughter into her life she realises they will both be safe as long as Susanne keeps her daughter close, and confesses her lie to no one. Ever.
Carla, a top model, launches a fierce national campaign to find her baby – but the trail is cold. She receives threats and recriminations from strangers – she flaunted her pregnancy in the media, she cashed in on it, she deserves everything she gets – and, pressured by well-meaning loved ones to move on, she begins to fall apart.
But one letter Carla receives stands out from the rest, offering support from a surprising quarter. It sparks a chain of events that opens wounds and exposes shocking secrets from Carla’s past that suggest what happened to her daughter was revenge a long time planned.
And it will bring Carla unknowingly close to the stolen daughter she has sworn she will do anything to get back…
* * *
‘A bittersweet tale of love and heartache.’ Evening Echo
‘An entertaining and highly thought-provoking tearjerker.’ Closer magazine
Also by Laura Elliot
The Betrayal
Fragile Lies
Stolen Child
The Prodigal Sister
Acknowledgments
Writing a book can be a solitary occupation but that solitude is softened by the people surrounding me – and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them. To my family, my husband Sean, my son Tony, my daughters Ciara and Michelle, and their spouses and partner, Roddy, Louise and Harry. To my extended family and to my friends, thank you for your support and wonderful encouragement over the years. I wish to acknowledge a special debt of gratitude to my mentor and writer, the late, great Sean McCann, who, sadly, passed away last year, but will never be forgotten.
To those of you I don’t know but who have taken the time to read and review my books, I offer you my gratitude and thanks. Sometimes, it feels as if my book has entered a black hole – then a review appears, a letter or an email arrives, and I read them with pleasure.
Finally – thanks to my agent Faith O’Grady and to the Bookouture team – the intrepid Oliver Rhodes, the unflagging Kim Nash, Emma Graves for the incredible cover, the vigilant Laura Kincaid, to Natasha Hodgson for her cooperation and attention to detail – and to my editor Claire Bord, whose editorial insights I respect and admire.
Published by Bookouture
An imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN
United Kingdom
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Laura Elliot, 2002
Laura Elliot has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
Sleep Sister is a new, extended version of When the Bough Breaks, previously published in the United Kingdom in 2002 by New Island Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-910751-97-8