Almost fifteen years after she vanished from his life, Daniel glimpses his childhood sweetheart, Hetty. Having seen her, he cannot forget her again.
When Daniel Matlock’s proposal to Josie, his girlfriend of ten years, is rejected, his world is turned upside down. Hoping to make a fresh start, he leaves London and returns to the place where he spent his summer holidays as a boy, in the heart of the New Forest.
Too late he realises that the success of his new life depends on finding Hetty, his childhood friend and first love. But as he begins to ask questions, he finds the people of Lyndon Hill oddly reluctant to admit they remember her. Only when he meets Matthias Werner, a former officer in the Luftwaffe, does he begin to piece together exactly what happened to her.
His search for Hetty reawakens old enmities, however, and uncovers a secret which has been kept for generations. But there is another secret too, and someone who will stop at nothing to keep the truth from coming out.
Complete at 135k words.