Local Girl Missing: A Novel - Softcover

Someone knows where she is . . .

A shocking story of love and violence, and the intoxication of female friendship, Local Girl Missing is a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller about a young woman whose disappearance shakes the foundation of her small seaport hometown.

When Sophie begins to date Leon, Frankie warns her not to be lured in by his sensitivity and startling blue eyes. Frankie sees a dark side to him, but Sophie is smitten. Soon after this romance begins, twenty-one-year-old Sophie vanishes, last seen at the town’s old Victorian pier.

Twenty years later, Frankie receives a call from Sophie’s brother, Daniel, informing her that remains have been found near the old pier. Frankie wonders if it could be Sophie and returns to her hometown to try to finally find closure. Haunted by the familiar faces that filled her youth and threatening notes that allude to past secrets that only Sophie would have known, Frankie begins to think she sees a woman on the pier late at night, a woman who looks just like Sophie. Could she be seeing her friend’s ghost? Does someone else know what happened those many years ago?

Feeling isolated and unnerved, Frankie begins to wish she hadn’t returned. As she looks for emotional support from Daniel, she realizes she may have deeper feelings for him and wonders how her life would have been if she chose to love him instead of the man she married. Falling down a spiral of self-doubt and alcohol-fueled nights, as Frankie gets closer to the truth she becomes aware that her past secrets coming to light might cost her everything—her family, her sanity, and even her life.

Claire Douglas has worked as a journalist for fifteen years, writing features for women’s magazines and newspapers, but she’s dreamed of being a novelist since the age of seven. She finally got her wish after winning Marie Claire’s Debut Novel Award for her first book, The Sisters, which became a bestseller. She lives in Bath, England, with her husband and two children.