First published 2019
A young girl escapes from a religious reformatory, stealing an infant from brutal caretakers who have abused her. She vanishes into the raw, unforgiving terrain of northern England, pursued by a ruthless gamekeeper determined to reclaim the child and return her to institutional control. Her flight becomes a primal struggle for survival—through forests, across moors, and along treacherous mountain paths where every step risks capture. Hunted by a system that sees her as property, she must navigate a landscape as uncompromising as her pursuers, with only her fierce maternal instinct and desperate cunning to protect her. Her journey is a raw confrontation between human vulnerability and institutional violence.
Genres: fiction, adventure, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fugitive, pursued, survival
Setting: England, Northern England
Period: 20th-Century
222 pages · Paperback · Bloomsbury
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse, violence