Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Every parent’s worst nightmare
Half the World Away
Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Every parent’s worst nightmare
What you need to know before your trail
Newly graduated Lori Maddox decides to spend a year backpacking in Asia and soon heads off to China where she finds work as a private English tutor. Back in Manchester, her parents Jo and Tom, separated since Lori was a toddler keep in constant touch via Lori’s blogs and emails. However when the post dry up, her parents become worried. And then they stop altogether.
When concern become alarm, they head out to Chengdu where Lori was teaching. But that is just the start of their nightmare. How do you find one person in a city of millions?
Travel Guide
Chengdu
There really was a charity called Missing Persons in China. It’s now known as the Lucie Blackman Trust after the infamous case of Lucie who went backpacking and was working in Hong Kong when she disappeared and was later found murdered.
Cath talked to the Lucie Blackman Trust when she was researching the book. Just as with this family, the wheels of officialdom run painfully slowly and the parents are forced to carry out investigations of their own and use their own time and resources to do so.
Chengdu is a busy city. Impossible to find anyone in it would seem:
“Chengdu is a growing city, a hub of economic development, eager to welcome overseas partnerships, foreign visitors and workers. they bend over backwards to extend hospitality to the international community so there’s understandably concerned that Lorelei is missing”
But the consulate has issues information on certain websites that people must access in order to find out who is missing. It’s a sensitive time when she goes missing as the anniversary of the Tianament Square massacre is coming up and that is taking all of the news slots and people’s time.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Half the World Away
Destination: Chengdu Author/Guide: Cath Staincliffe Departure Time: 2000s
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