The Beloved Girls

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What to expect

The outstanding new novel from the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of The Garden of Lost and Found.

'It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer . . . There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. Half for them -' my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. 'And half for us.'

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?
The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . .

'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.'

(P) 2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critics Review

  • PRAISE FOR THE BELOVED GIRLS:

  • Wow, was this book stunning or what? It stole my heart and never gave it back. ‘

    Reader review
  • ‘I’m still reeling from reading this book . . . Wow!’

    Reader review
  • Wow! This book pulled me in from the beginning . . . A five star read

    Reader review
  • ‘A compelling story of female friendship, dark secrets and family bonds that pulls you in and won’t let go

    Rosanna Ley
  • ‘This is the most gripping, atmospheric book, heavy with mystery and intriguing right till the end. I loved it’

    Sophie Kinsella

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