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2000s: A woman found half dead on a Sussex beach is only the start of a bizarre and shocking crime which leads detectives to some very dark places and a very dark story..
Stolen
What you need to know before your trail
A girl found half dead on a beach in Sussex has no recollection of how she got there. When her story appears in a Brighton newspaper, alarm bells start to ring for beautician Dale, who realises she used to work with this girl on a cruise ship. The two have not seen each other for months but she had worries back then that she never spoke off.
The trail to find this girl’s past and her memories leads Dale to some very dark places of her own, Its as if the tide which brought the half dead girl to the beach is a tidal wave of secrets.
There is also a missing baby to consider for Lotte shows signs of having recently given birth..
Travel Guide
Selsey
From the shocking opening on Selsey beach, this is a story of betrayal, lost friendship and many many secrets. She is taken to St Richard’s hospital in Chichester
A beach in Selsey seems a million miles away from the high seas of South America where Lotte and Dale met. The scenes here are those of excitement – the thrill akin to a backpacker’s gap year and the sense of freedom and adventure that comes with that. They travelled to such places as San Francisco,Trinidad and Santiago, where a couple get on board that changes everything. Another stopover is Ushuaia where disaster strikes.
Brighton
But back in Brighton when Dale hears of Lotte’s fate, reality is a much darker picture –
“She thought that coming back to Brighton to work a whole new life would open up for her. But the reality was that she was always working, she had no friends aside from her work colleagues and there never seemed any opportunity….”
The search into Lotte’s past takes her friends all around Brighton to where she used to work – the grand hotel and the hairdressing salon to meeting with her parents who live in a street with chipped paint and artificial flowers giving a rather depressing look.
A search which then takes us to Birdham and Itchenor – places so sunny and beautiful that it seems ironic that such dark secrets should be trapped here just waiting to be discovered.
From a shingle beach to the wide landscaped streets of Brighton, from the high seas of South America (but no spoilers here) to the small narrow treelined avenues of village such as Birdham. The boats of Itchenor harbour are unlike those of the cruise ship but they are linked in more ways than one..
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
A shocking start takes you right to the action and that’s when you realise that the cute cover is a smokescreen for the book has dark issues in it and scenes not too far away from a certain Stephen King novel for its nature.
Lesley Pearse is a dark horse showing you what can and could happen behind the respectable streets of a nice town or village. How a place can reveal the secrets it tries hard to bury. Some of these scenes were graphic and uncomfortable and I’m afraid some were a little far fetched in my eyes. Still suspend your sense of disbelief towards the end and it still makes for a great story.
The couple on the boat – well no spoilers here but when you read their history it brings chills to your spine. How people you meet along the way can turn out to be something quite different…
When you see the places in and around Brighton for real, it made me see the innocence that Lotte and Dale would have had on their gap year and how what happened happened.
A story ultimately about remembering your past and dealing with the horrors that come from it.
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Twitter: @lesleypearse
Web: lesleypearse.com
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