First published 2013
China, an eight-year-old girl from Hanmouth's shabby outskirts, disappears without a trace. The picturesque English town divides sharply between its affluent center, filled with artisan cheese shops and antique stores, and its grim periphery of chain stores and flimsy housing. Despite security cameras lining every street, no footage captures China's abduction. Her hairdresser mother becomes the prime suspect in what many believe is an elaborate money-making scheme. As England's media descends on sleepy Hanmouth, the investigation exposes the town's carefully guarded secrets. Sam and Harry, the respected cheesemonger and aristocrat, orchestrate the county's gay orgies. Miranda, the celebrated postcolonial theorist, remains oblivious to her husband's male lover while their disturbed daughter mutilates dolls with shocking names. John Calvin's Neighborhood Watch meets in secret for reasons far from noble. Each revelation strips away another layer of Hanmouth's respectable facade, revealing the raw humanity beneath its polished surface.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Hanmouth, England
Period: contemporary
480 pages · Paperback · Libros del Asteroide
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness