Nowhere Child by Rachel Abbott

Nowhere Child is an add-on novella, and is part of the DCI Tom Douglas series by Rachel Abbott. More specifically it is part of Stranger Child, and a follow up to Natasha's story.

In Stranger Child Natasha returns to her home many years after her mysterious disappearance. Taken as small child and turned into the modern equivalent of a Fagin's Oliver Twist type criminal.

Her stepmother Emma is wary of the intruder, whereas her husband seems eager to just gloss over the missing years. Natasha ends up putting her baby brother in danger, so it would only be natural for Emma to want to see the back end of this troubled teen.

Instead Emma finds herself drawn to the girl, and wants to help rather than remove the strange girl from her perfect life and picture book family scenario. Unfortunately Natasha has valid reasons not to trust anyone and also fears repercussions from her old gang, so she makes a run for it.

Nowhere Child takes up the story from that point onwards. With Natasha sleeping rough under bridges and in tunnels, and Emma spending all her waking hours searching for her. The relationship between the two of them is unusual and yet at the same time quite refreshing. You don't have to give birth to a child to be a mother to one. It's a shame the powers that be don't always view non-biological relationships the same way.

This story holds the answers to all the unanswered questions from Stranger Child. The most important one being: What happened to Natasha?

Thank you to the author for my copy of Nowhere Child.

Buy Nowhere Child at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read And So It Begins, Read Kill Me Again, Read The Back Road,  Read Sleep Tight, Read Come a Little Closer, Read Stranger Child all by Rachel Abbott.