Cirrus@Austlit

'Sometimes, the most perfect families are hiding the most terrible secrets. How well do you know the people next door?

'Everybody wants to live on Hogarth Street, the pretty, tree-lined avenue with its white houses. The new family, The Wests, are a perfect fit. Katherine and Josh seem so in love and their gorgeous five-year-old twins race screeching around their beautiful emerald-green lawn.

'But soon people start to notice: why don’t they join backyard barbecues? Why do they brush away offers to babysit? Why, when you knock at the door, do they shut you out, rather than inviting you in?

'Every family has secrets, and on the hottest day of the year, the truth is about to come out. As a tragedy unfolds behind closed doors, the dawn chorus is split by the wail of sirens. And one by one the families who tried so hard to welcome the Wests begin to realise: Hogarth Street will never be the same again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Where is he? Where’s my beloved child with his father’s blue eyes and a halo of golden curls? My little boy is out there on his own. Please keep him safe, I silently beg, please, please just keep him safe.

'‘Your son is missing,’ they say, and life as I know it is over. ‘Where would he go?’ the police ask. ‘Where would he be?’ my daughter begs.

'My heart races as images flash in my mind. The cabin we rent every autumn, surrounded by fiery red maple trees. Voices raised. Tears falling. A marriage falling apart. And worst of all my husband telling our child, Theo, to run.

'The rest is a blank in my memory. If I close my eyes I can almost see it. A betrayal that has left me alone, in tatters, grieving for what we had.

'It wasn’t meant to be like that. It should have been precious time as a family, with boardgames, walks in the mountain and pancakes for breakfast.

'Instead my little one is has vanished. ‘They are looking for him,’ the nurse told me, ‘but the storm is slowing down the search.’

'The police think Theo has the answers, that he knows what tore our family apart. But I have no idea where he is. No clue if he is safe. I won’t survive unless I bring him home. But if I do, and the truth comes out, will I survive that?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In a single day, a simple mistake will have life-altering consequences for everyone involved.

'A moment of distraction, an unlocked car and a missing baby. How on earth could this happen?

'All Malia needed was a single litre of milk and now she’s surrounded by police and Zach has disappeared.

'Detective Ali Greenberg knows that this is not the best case for her, not with her history - but she of all people knows what Malia is going through and what is at stake.

'Edna is worried about the new residents at the boarding house. She knows Mary would turn in her grave if she knew the kinds of people her son was letting in.

'And then there is someone else. Someone whose heart is broken. Someone who feels she has been unfairly punished for her mistakes. Someone who wants what she can’t have.

'What follows is a heart-stopping game of cat-and-mouse and a race against the clock. As the hours pass and the day heats up, all hope begins to fade.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.