She turns the key and starts the engine. One last look at the house. Is it her imagination or does it seem calmer now that her story is done? Or are there more secrets lurking in the shadows? More hiding places not yet found? So many ghosts whispering their tales of sadness. It’s impossible to listen to them all.

Marina releases the handbrake and then she pulls away. Away down to the High Road, away to the road home, away to pursue a life that stretches ahead of her like a distant horizon, while somewhere – somewhere – a young woman smiles because she has remembered the name for that beautiful, vibrant blue.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my agent, Sophie Lambert, for her energy, hard work and creative insight which continues to help me develop and grow as a writer, and to the whole team at C&W for their support. Thank you to my brilliant editor, Sam Humphreys, for her creativity and tactful approach, to Charlotte Wright for her patience and skill, and to all at Mantle and Pan Macmillan.

Thank you to early readers Alex Birtles, Amelia Walcott and Stephen Walcott, and to readers, authors, bloggers, reviewers, booksellers and librarians who have championed my books and given me confidence to continue.

Special thanks to family and friends who have encouraged me along the way, to my brothers, Peter, David, Christopher and Michael, and especially to my parents, Joyce and Jack Quintana who stay in my heart forever.

Thanks and love to my husband, Derick, who is the kindest and most patient person I know.

Finally, to my dearest, most wonderful and talented children, Stephen, Amelia and Olivia, to whom this book is dedicated. I am exceptionally proud of who you are and what you have achieved. Love always.

Read More

Selected for Waterstones Thriller of the Month

A stunning debut thriller, The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana is a gripping novel full of twists and turns, and a desperate hunt to solve a decades-old mystery.

Anna Flores was just a child when her adored teenage sister disappeared.

Unable to deal with the pain, Anna took the first opportunity she had to run from her fractured family, eventually building a life for herself abroad.

Now, thirty years on, her mother has died, and Anna must return home to sort through her possessions.

In doing so, she has to confront the huge hole her sister’s disappearance left in their lives, leaving just one question unanswered: what really happened to Gabriella?

Because not knowing is worse than the truth.

Isn’t it?

From the author of The Missing Girl, Jenny Quintana’s gripping novel, Our Dark Secret, tells the story of two girls, two deaths and two decades of silence . . .