KERRY BARRETT is the author of eight novels, including the Strictly Come Dancing themed A Step in Time, and The Girl in the Picture, about a crime novelist who solves a 160-year-old mystery.
Born in Edinburgh, Kerry moved to London as a child, where she now lives with her husband and two sons. A massive bookworm growing up, she used to save up her pocket money for weeks to buy the latest Sweet Valley High book, then read the whole story on the bus home and have to wait two months for the next one. Eventually she realised it would be easier to write her own stories …
Kerry’s years as a television journalist, reporting on EastEnders and Corrie, have inspired her novels where popular culture collides with a historical mystery. But there is no truth in the rumours that she only wrote a novel based on Strictly Come Dancing so she would be invited on to It Takes Two.
When she’s not practicing her foxtrot (because you never know …), Kerry is watching Netflix, reading Jilly Cooper, and researching her latest historical story.
The Secret Letter
The Hidden Women
The Girl in the Picture
The Forgotten Girl
A Step in Time
The Could It Be Magic? Series
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
I Put a Spell on You
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
I’ll Be There for You
A Spoonful of Sugar: A Novella
The Smuggler’s Daughter
KERRY BARRETT
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2020
Copyright © Kerry Barrett
Kerry Barrett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © September 2020 ISBN: 9780008389734
Version: 2020-08-14
Table of Contents
About the Author
Also by Kerry Barrett
Chapter 1: Emily
Chapter 2: Phoebe
Chapter 3: Phoebe
Chapter 4: Emily
Chapter 5: Phoebe
Chapter 6: Emily
Chapter 7: Emily
Chapter 8: Phoebe
Chapter 9: Phoebe
Chapter 10: Emily
Chapter 11
Chapter 12: Phoebe
Chapter 13
Chapter 14: Emily
Chapter 15: Phoebe
Chapter 16: Emily
Chapter 17: Phoebe
Chapter 18: Emily
Chapter 19: Phoebe
Chapter 20: Emily
Chapter 21: Phoebe
Chapter 22
Chapter 23: Emily
Chapter 24: Phoebe
Chapter 25: Emily
Chapter 26
Chapter 27: Phoebe
Chapter 28
Chapter 29: Emily
Chapter 30: Phoebe
Chapter 31
Chapter 32: Emily
Chapter 33: Phoebe
Chapter 34: Emily
Chapter 35: Phoebe
Chapter 36: Emily
Chapter 37: Phoebe
Chapter 38: Emily
Chapter 39: Phoebe
Chapter 40
Chapter 41: Emily
Chapter 42: Phoebe
About the Publisher
I wrote most of this book in lockdown, so it is dedicated to my children’s teachers, with massive respect and gratitude.