The Gone and the Forgotten

  • Book Club; Drama; Mystery

  • June 2022

    • World Rights: Head of Zeus

Summer, 1993. 

In the aftermath of her mother's suicide attempt, 16-year-old Prue must spend the summer holidays on a remote island in the Shetlands with her favourite Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie, a man she's barely met since her aunt married him. Prue hopes to re-establish the relationship, and that her aunt might help her understand some of the parts of the past she has been forbidden to discuss by her mother – including the identity of her father.

Prue soon finds out that her uncle was the only suspect in the disappearance of a local girl some twenty years ago. As she grows closer to him, she learns there are differing views on how the beguiling Evelyn O'Hara disappeared, but is her uncle innocent?

Truth is something Prue has always had a fractured relationship with. A single version of the truth seems impossible for her to lockdown...

Selected Praise

What a beautiful, absorbing, emotional book... A stunning read.
— Louise Beech
An exceptional book! The perfect combination of a coming-of-age story with a crime novel.
— Netgalley

Other books by Clare Whitfield