Creeping Ivy

Natasha Cooper lives in London and writes for a variety of newspapers and journals. She was Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association in 2000/01 and regularly speaks at crime-writing conferences on both sides of the Atlantic. N. J. is the author of the Trish Maguire series and has also written psychological suspense novels as Clare Layton.

How do you bear it when your 4-year-old child goes missing?
When Antonia Weblock's daughter, Charlotte, vanishes from a London playground, even her enemies are sympathetic. Villified for putting her City career above her child's welfare, she has plenty of those.

She turns to barrister Trish Maguire for help. As a specialist in the darkest cases involving children, Trish knows exactly what can happen to them at the hands of abusive adults. While she does everything she can to support Antonia, the police pull out all the stops to find Charlotte, asking the questions that are in everyone's mind: did she wander off or was she kidnapped? Could her apparently devoted nanny have killed her and hidden the body? Why wasn't her stepfather looking after her as he'd promised? And where was her real father when she disappeared?

No one who knows Charlotte can be above suspicion and it is not long before Trish herself is at risk.

Trish Maguire is a memorable character whose strong ideals and fierce intelligence belie her private torments and vulnerability. Creeping Ivy is a menacing story of manipulation and betrayal which will stay in the mind long after the book is finished.