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Finding Lucy: A suspenseful and moving novel that you won't be able to put down
Diana Finley
Every family has its secrets. None more than this one. Alison’s life has been a lonely one, but now it’s time to change that. With no children in her future there is only one answer – she’ll take one.She’ll rescue a girl who needs a better home. A better mother. A better life.It will be the start of a perfect family, and no one will question who Lucy really is. Especially not Lucy herself…A dark story of psychological suspense, perfect for fans of Kerry Fisher, Liane Moriarty and Linda Green.
About Diana Finley (#ufd01aa96-d5f0-50e3-a65c-cd25011f6462)
DIANA FINLEY was born and grew up in Germany, where her father was a British Army officer. After a move to London, at eighteen, Diana spent a year living with nomadic people in the remote Pamir mountains of Afghanistan – an experience about which she wrote several stories and accounts. These helped secure her first job, as copywriter and then as writer and editor of children’s information books for Macdonald Educational Publishers.
A move to North East England meant changing direction. Diana took a degree in Speech and Psychology, and worked for many years as a Specialist in Autism, publishing a professional book. In 2011 she completed an MA in Creative Writing with distinction at Newcastle University. In 2014 her debut novel, The Loneliness of Survival, a moving family saga, was published.
Diana enjoys exploring complex and often contradictory characters and emotions in her writing. Finding Lucy, her second novel, is a dark, intriguing, psychological story about every parent’s worst nightmare – a stolen child.
Finding Lucy
DIANA FINLEY
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018
Copyright © Diana Finley
Diana Finley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © September 2018 ISBN: 9780008297749
Version: 2018-11-05
For Harvey, who may read it one day.
Table of Contents
Cover (#ue96444b8-c59b-5d21-b07a-ac2bbe4c6f06)
About Diana Finley (#u2d75d163-3e5c-5094-bab9-feaf31b47158)
Title Page (#u7861c8b2-ac1a-5eb1-81f0-0b75afa39c00)
Copyright (#ub9150a6b-1a34-5130-ab77-9abb31ee39a6)
Dedication (#u3bda47ee-c071-5467-8b9b-c288e14a995a)
Chapter One (#u4b225c1f-05c4-57ed-90c1-3b453c224928)
Chapter Two (#udaf1ae6e-bf09-572d-bfd4-0ffb69a7c59a)
Chapter Three (#ub6845677-6251-5903-addf-532bf70a7e95)
Chapter Four (#ub080b307-0295-554e-8355-ea19d7ef4bd1)
Chapter Five (#ud6490a83-32b1-50cf-8990-8c395020ff91)
Chapter Six (#u0c76498c-e6d9-5272-8568-d2ff6dd88872)
Chapter Seven (#ubdd5cfd1-3a9f-5f1e-928c-fe42776cb40e)
Chapter Eight (#u050faea0-d144-54ac-b37a-2bc4b8428ccc)
Chapter Nine (#u670d35c4-84a4-5d62-a72b-01ed3b5b4943)
Chapter Ten (#udfd7efb6-2603-5c08-a195-2bf1b37901e7)
Chapter Eleven (#u5300bfa3-8e84-547d-b8c7-7aafc2ec58b3)
Chapter Twelve (#ubdd6b7d6-60e8-5100-b31e-25b8010b4746)
Chapter Thirteen (#u6b219704-6c6d-552e-8b0d-cae0539bd8d4)
Chapter Fourteen (#ub695074d-29e1-5778-947e-0f9fa3351066)
Chapter Fifteen (#u974ee418-b300-58e9-936a-fd8b197ba42f)
Chapter Sixteen (#ud6b5450d-81be-56de-bada-abe016b36e6d)
Chapter Seventeen (#u85c323a7-44d2-5aca-a91d-d2aa13604506)
Chapter Eighteen (#u35fa1c66-2a9f-5f23-a507-b7733e8aec70)
Chapter Nineteen (#ua7108a45-2398-5a13-9fec-82ef9b685073)
Chapter Twenty (#u6db08684-d43d-557f-ae4b-ea9b1f259aea)
Chapter Twenty-One (#u5140e3a1-f269-5878-9f6b-1cec510f77b9)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#u5733b5a0-65c6-5eb7-ae79-4e122eea908f)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#u23da1916-f4f3-5dec-88a9-555ae98ccf99)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#ud5ef6226-3281-58e8-8c0a-69bdd3073f26)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#u1c1b9713-580b-5bb5-8868-3f39ae11d909)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#u171e8b33-01d5-5a69-94ec-7ab56908a495)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#uc8d854d0-9854-510f-9f5d-52b3a6f4cdb7)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#u951875cd-5557-50a5-8d3c-098b6189ef73)
Chapter Twenty-Nine (#u6e0ea99a-e597-51b0-aa19-928d0557cb6e)
Chapter Thirty (#u5a09b137-e8c8-52de-a41b-516ead5519ac)
Chapter Thirty-One (#uafac17ca-a2f3-5574-a7ec-5450734cdb4c)
Chapter Thirty-Two (#ua200f166-43d4-57b7-8940-7bd7ab1fa80b)
Chapter Thirty-Three (#u956fdcfd-645c-53bd-ae42-d70a5e5d5f1a)
Chapter Thirty-Four (#u66c726e7-40a1-567f-8214-26d483c01909)
Chapter Thirty-Five (#ub68fd488-8cdc-5eed-b278-742a4b3ec52f)
Chapter Thirty-Six (#u4d868dc8-04e3-571e-8b03-eb90f5ebf20c)
Chapter Thirty-Seven (#ufc0c2581-989e-5cc6-94f3-f2ffa0fe3006)
Chapter Thirty-Eight (#u8c1173fa-0d40-57a3-a910-ebd6a36c42c0)
Chapter Thirty-Nine (#u0a178b4d-fb4c-5861-b5e2-8ca105d6a7b9)
Chapter Forty (#u83d69c03-339d-51eb-b813-95044178e72b)
Chapter Forty-One (#u77f8f34e-882f-5f99-868b-0e0054290205)
Chapter Forty-Two (#u3d50486a-2a6d-5a59-a4c7-e4d71e6285c7)
Chapter Forty-Three (#u47c472ba-c891-5e5f-99bb-e52b280b29f7)
Chapter Forty-Four (#u298058c5-3e75-5836-a411-7ef4ebb00535)
Chapter Forty-Five (#ud198edc9-1c30-5f25-b5e8-f11adebd4c93)
Chapter Forty-Six (#ue30dfb93-75fd-5222-987b-e9796e4b94e8)
Chapter Forty-Seven (#uadaf9705-af07-54e0-9798-6f8dc41fb8b5)
Chapter Forty-Eight (#ue54966cc-e324-5240-8967-5fd0f6284b8c)
Chapter Forty-Nine (#u27620d61-b32f-5fcc-a0db-11b2749a987f)
Chapter Fifty (#u22b13f23-b2fa-5021-8e5e-28d888bfba9e)
Chapter Fifty-One (#uf102c9d7-9dd3-595a-b080-2fdd896d171a)
Chapter Fifty-Two (#u27d2099e-ce22-5b23-96b8-d5441c7fb0d9)
Chapter Fifty-Three (#uee3a8c23-4d89-54cf-9c4a-e72e1be19337)
Chapter Fifty-Four (#u9a685c3b-655f-58e5-b473-1919f513352d)
Chapter Fifty-Five (#udf3631ca-9ccc-5342-9f2a-ac5a6f7a32be)
Chapter Fifty-Six (#ud3c737b0-eca5-570f-8c91-e0e33218025c)
Chapter Fifty-Seven (#u01a6cfc0-e938-5de7-a30e-8899e453a359)
Chapter Fifty-Eight (#u1fb3c05d-7402-5ff2-8b86-b1fa399259d5)
Chapter Fifty-Nine (#u7cc5929e-d749-5242-9fe0-00b06a9514c6)
Chapter Sixty (#u0b714850-9de9-57f4-84de-a77dafda4fe9)
Chapter Sixty-One (#u6458c42a-fa78-54e5-bc61-36548525b8b0)
Chapter Sixty-Two (#u946deb90-9a80-5701-a725-435f2a970877)
Chapter Sixty-Three (#u9742b23e-3c23-5b53-b21b-8fe5a0d28fbc)
Chapter Sixty-Four (#u54532b26-a8d9-57e3-b5ba-5840cd6e5f0b)
Chapter Sixty-Five (#u997fe97a-f426-5330-8372-1959202c75c1)
Acknowledgements (#u3ef7c60b-618b-50c9-95fd-5abfed74fb9f)
Dear Reader … (#ud1a9d6c9-fa6d-5b69-a414-c3ea842769ef)
About the Publisher (#u16c05056-82ac-5a1f-bfa7-25c226d418c2)
Chapter One (#ufd01aa96-d5f0-50e3-a65c-cd25011f6462)
1984
Alison
It was after seeing the grave that I finally decided to take a child. There was nothing special about it – the grave, that is. Not one of those ghastly, over-sentimentalised affairs sprouting angels’ wings or teddy bears. Quite plain. A simple stone and a concise message:
In memory of our dearly loved little girl
