The Vale Girl

"If you leave no trace, nobody could say later whether you were even there at all." Fourteen-year-old Sarah Vale has gone missing in the small town of Banville. She's the daughter of the town whore so no one seems particularly concerned. No one cares except Tommy Johns, who loves Sarah Vale with all the unadulterated, tentative passion of a teenage boy. He galvanises the town's policeman Sergeant Henson and, together, they turn the town inside out, searching for the lost girl. A delicate and layered exploration of secrets and lies, forgotten children and absent parents, and the long shadows of the past. An extraordinary debut from a talented new writer.