The Lost Girls

Carmel Wakeford #2

by Kate Hamer

Beth is desperate to return to normality. After a years-long ordeal, her daughter is finally home and safe. But Carmel has questions she can't ignore about the cult that kidnapped her, and about the preacher who gave her another girl's name.

Found, she must survive a miracle.

Digging into her past, Carmel uncovers secrets which suggest that she wasn't the only lost girl - and which puts her in danger all over again. While her mother struggles to salvage the safety they've only just found, Carmel tries to come to terms with who she has become. One question, a mystery at the heart of her disappearance as a child, haunts her:

What happened to the other lost girls?

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, British Literature, Audiobook

368 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Kate Hamer's third novel CRUSHED is published in May 2019 (Faber & Faber). She is the author of THE DOLL FUNERAL (Faber & Faber 2017) which was a Bookseller book of the month and an editor's pick for Radio 4's Open Book. Her first novel THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT has been translated into 18 different languages. It was shortlisted for The Costa First Novel Prize, the British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, The John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger and the Wales Book of the Year. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. She grew up in the west country and rural Pembrokeshire and now lives with her husband in Cardiff.

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lost Girls by Kate Hamer is a sequel to her previous book The Girl In The Red Coat.
Carmel is now 21 and living in London with her mother.
Their relationship is strained and both are finding it difficult to relate to each other.
Carmel is still trying to come to terms with her abduction and is fixated on finding out what happened to a girl called Mercy who was taken before her by the same man.
The story is told in alternate chapters by Carmel 2013 and Mercy in 1999.
A story of courage and resilience.
Thank you to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book blind as I am fed up by being deceived by the blurb. A little girl is kidnapped by a healing preacher. Taken to a different continent, told that mum and dad don't want you any more. The preacher says that you have healing powers and that this is your life now. You find out that there were other girls before you so where are they now?? Fast forward to the present day and estranged daughter and mother are reunited. They have to learn their roles all over again, and the daughter makes it her mission to find out what happened to the lost girls.
I loved the The Girl In The Red Coat, but this read left me feeling flat and I felt it was just a rehash of the Red Coat.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Girls is a sequel to The Girl in the Red Coat and while a lot of information is recapped, I would think you’d get more enjoyment from it if you were familiar with the first story.

Carmel is now 21 and back at home with her mother Beth. They are both trying to move on but it’s not easy. Beth is desperate for her daughter to live a normal life again but Carmel is haunted by her time with the preacher - and remembering the other girl before her, Mercy. Carmel feels a strong affinity with Mercy, particularly as the preacher gave her this name too.

This is their story; Beth’s, Carmel’s and Mercy’s. All bound together as a result of this one man’s actions.

This was a really interesting read. The Girl in the Red Coat is an outstanding book (if you haven’t read it you need to) and this was a fascinating and realistic follow up, which emphasised the difficulties of ever recovering from such an experience and made my heart break for Carmel and Beth all over again. I also loved meeting Mercy and hearing about her tragic life.

Beautifully written, filled with emotion and highlighting once again the sheer strength of a mother’s love, this is a book which will definitely tug at your heartstrings.

[Silvie Klokgieter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Na een zenuwslopende periode in haar leven wil Beth wanhopig graag terugkeren naar hoe het vroeger was. Jaren geleden werd haar dochter Carmel ontvoerd, en ze bleef lange tijd vermist. Nu is Carmel weliswaar veilig thuis, maar de psychische schade die ze heeft opgelopen is minder makkelijk op te lossen. Moeder en dochter worstelen met de vragen die Carmel heeft, over de sekte die haar ontvoerde en de priester die haar een andere naam gaf. Vragen die ze niet kunnen loslaten.

Carmel duikt steeds dieper in haar traumatische verleden en ontdekt geheimen die haar opnieuw in gevaar brengen, én die suggereren dat zij niet het enige vermiste meisje was. Terwijl haar moeder vecht om de net gevonden veiligheid te waarborgen, probeert Carmel uit te vinden wie ze is geworden. Eén vraag, één mysterie dat de kern is van haar ontvoering blijft haar achtervolgen: waar zijn de andere verdwenen meisjes?

Dit verhaal wordt vanuit drie verschillende personages verteld. Zo lees je vanuit Mercy, in het jaar 1999. Maar ook lees je in 2013 vanuit Carmel en haar moeder, Beth. De afwisseling tussen deze mensen is fijn.

Vooral de eerste helft van het boek is interessant. Het leven van Mercy is behoorlijk treurig en ook Carmel maakt de nodige heftige dingen mee. Ik vond deze twee personages dan ook het boeiendste.

'De verloren meisjes' is het vervolg op 'Het meisje in de rode jas', maar die had ik niet gelezen en ik moet zeggen dat ik geen problemen ondervond tijdens het lezen van dit tweede deel. Er worden namelijk dingen verteld die eerder zijn gebeurd, dus dit verhaal is prima als losstaand deel te lezen.

De grote vraag is wat er uiteindelijk met Mercy is gebeurd en Carmel wordt weer ingehaald door haar verleden. Beth maakt zich enorme zorgen om de geestelijke gezondheid van haar dochter en uiteindelijk komen alle verhaallijnen bij elkaar.

Het verhaal is apart en uniek en de eerste helft zou ik zeker vier sterren geven. In de tweede helft vond ik het helaas wat afzwakken en hierdoor ben ik dus ook iets gezakt in mijn beoordeling. Toch heeft deze auteur mij wel nieuwsgierig gemaakt.

Ik wil @boekerij heel erg bedanken voor deze leuke verrassing!

Beoordeling: 3,5 ⭐️

[Collette · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happens if you were kidnapped by a healing preacher?, what if you were taken to a different continent?, what if you were told that you had healing powers?, what if you know that there was another girl before you?, what if she has 'just disappeared'?, What if you are rescued?, What if you find it hard to readjust with unanswered questions?....
An interesting tale, I felt like some depth was missing though.

[Janaya Kabamba · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a bit in the fence about this one. You know when you read a book and finish and kinda go.... what did I just read?! That's my feeling with this one. I felt I had to push myself to finish it it didn't really click for me but it might just not be my genre or my style of writing

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realise when I requested this that it was a sequel, so I had to quickly go purchase the first book to read that and I'm glad I did! The first book "The Girl In The Red Coat" was very good, and this picks up several years later as we follow Carmel adjust to her life back home in the UK with her mum.


Life is not easy and is full of mess and trauma and the author potrayed this very well. I particularly enjoyed reading Mercy's POV here, as we only got small glimpses of her in the first book. Carmel, is a very hard character to relate to, she has grown up but is still so childish in a way and I'm still not sure what to make of her healing abilities.


I'm not sure this sequel was absolutely necessary but it was a decent enough follow up, if a bit slow and bit too tidy at the end.


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Netgalley, Faber and Faber Ltd and the author.

[The Breakneck Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast on the tails of me reading and enjoying The girl in the red coat I expected this sequel to fill in the gaps were left unanswered at the end of the first book - It did, and it didn't. It took a very long time to get going and the background of Mercy (the original girl taken) kept me interested as did the broken dynamic of Beth and Carmel. However there were aspects of both of their personalities shown that I didn't like. There was a slight macabre turning in the book that didn't really offer anything to the story and the ending was a problem for me. Instead of the orchestral finale it was building up to, it was a solidarity whistle. I ended up feeling a little deflated by it because I was expecting more. It also strangely left questions. Where was Dorothy? Quite a big side character in the original book that is completely missing from the second. The timeframes didn't appear to add up. Overall the book dimmed in comparison to the first. I read it quite easily but didn't enjoy the read as much as I thought I would.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But one thing I've learned is being unlost is not the same as being found."

This is the sequel to Kate Hamer's book "The Girl in the Red Coat" (which is phenomenal!) and I read it straight after finishing the latter, desperate to read more about how Beth and Carmel's stories unfold. I wasn't disappointed.

The Lost Girls was just as mesmerising from the start. Kate's writing transports me to another world entirely and it's like nothing else exists when I'm reading her books.

I was hoping to see some of the other characters from the first book (Dorothy & the twins) and find out what happened to them but maybe that's for a third book in the future? She says, hopefully!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read.

I love the characterisation in these books. Hamer captures childlike voices, wonder and feelings so vividly, not to mention the American/British "voice" differences.

I didn't find this quite as tense and unputdownable as the first one, hence the four stars, but thoroughly enjoyed hearing Mercy's story and seeing how Carmel sets about rebuilding herself. I can't wait to read more by this author.

[Carly Rushforth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is story about how Beth & Carmel navigate life now they are back together and what they must to do move forward. Moving in also means revisiting the past, if they’re both strong enough.

It’s told from Beth & Carmel’s perspective again which I enjoyed just as much as the previous book.

This will definitely leave you on the edge of your seat and I sense a third book maybe ?.

[Mollie Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book although feel like I maybe wouldn’t have as much if I had read the first book

[Abbie Jade Purnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - it took me AGES to get through this one! Again, like the first book, most of was gobbledy gook. Most of the important characters from the first book were not mentioned in this book at all.

[Julie Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was privileged to be offered the chance to read this sequel through NetGalley having loved The Girl in the Red Coat and, while it was very different, I was not disappointed! I loved the uncompromising and real feeling of the difficult relationship between the mother and daughter at the centre of the story. Carmel was found and was returned to her ‘home’ but that was never going to be easy and, personally, I was relieved it wasn’t all rosy as that would not have been realistic. Both mother and daughter had to find a way through, a way to ‘be’ with each other and some acceptance of things they couldn’t change.

Alongside this, was the story of Mercy and what happened to her. Her upbringing and life before she left home was poles apart from Carmel’s but there were interesting parallels. Their lives with the ‘preacher’ or ‘pastor’ were very similar. Both girls lost their freedom, were caring of others and learnt to serve at an early age.

The Lost Girls is not a book that wraps everything up neatly in a bow for its readers! Instead it challenges you, it forces you to consider what the reality of the situation might really be and it makes you takes a good hard look at things. Could you accept what Carmel is like as an adult? Could you even begin to understand what she went through? Could you support her even if what she was considering was total anathema to you? Could you even like her?

So, if you love a book filled with complex characters and lots of challenges, then read this one! I highly recommend it!

[LindyLouMac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to this authors writing back in 2017 when she came to Tywyn to speak at a Literary Dinner. Since then I have continued to take an interest in her work. Having read the prequel ‘The Girl in the Red Coat’ to this latest novel it was imperative I read ‘The Lost Girls.’ Although it is a stand alone story, I personally appreciated the fact that I had read the previous novel.

Three traumatised protagonists, Carmel Mercy and Beth relate their stories to the reader. Carmel was abducted as a young child then eight years later she is reunited with her mother Beth. A guilt ridden mother and a troubled daughter who have trouble not surprisingly relating to each other. Carmel also frequently dreams of another lost child and carries out a heart breaking search for answers.

What a haunting tale! I do find Kate Hamer’s style of writing rather disturbing, but her novels including this one are always captivating. I do not hesitate in recommending this author.

https://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogsp...

[Jemma Crosland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lost Girls is a sequel to The Girl in the Red Coat, where an 8-year-old child is kidnapped from a storytelling festival as she is believed to have been given healing abilities from God. The Lost Girls centres on the adjustment to life for both Carmel and Beth, after she has been found and returned to her family. I was so excited to read about the aftermath of this colossal event and to see what had changed for this family.
One thing that is important to note is that The Lost Girls takes place when Carmel is 21, but she was returned home at the age of thirteen. I feel as though the storyline has skipped ahead too far and has missed out on the crucial years between 13 and 21. I would have liked their fresh perspectives from straight after the event, rather than another 8 years down the line and I think these missing years were detrimental to the plot.
Similar to the first book, I really enjoyed the depth of Beth's character as a mother and gaining her outlook. In both books, but more so TLG, we don't see how this impacts Carmel's dad very much at all, as the plot is more focused on the mother-daughter relationship and how the kidnapping affected the dynamics of trust and communication.
I grew to really liking Mercy and was interested by her backstory with her parents and finding community and support in the church. As I mentioned before, this book is very content-heavy with religion and this is not something that I am accustomed to or have much interest in, but I don't think it detracts too much from the thrilling story.
Whilst I did think that some of the loose ends from The Girl in the Red Coat were resolved in this book, I was still left with a lot of unanswered questions, surrounding for instance the kidnapping or even Dorothy and her 2 girls. It didn't have the satisfying conclusion that I was hoping for, especially in regards to the pastor. The Lost Girls was a good attempt at carrying on the plot of The Girl in the Red Coat but I don't personally think it was strong enough to be a successful ending to the story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber Ltd and the author Kate Hamer for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this sequel straight after reading The Girl in the Red Coat. Carmel is now several-years reunited with her English mother having been abducted by an American travelling healer/preacher. I liked how this novel went beyond the 'happily ever after' and really unpicked the messiness and unresolved misunderstanding and trauma once Carmel returned. The story of Carmel's 'healing predecessor' , Mercy, was also explored. Once again, the author strongly illustrated each character's point of view and inner dialogue, although I wasn't as blown away with the depth of description of their feelings compared to the first book; maybe this was because Carmel had grown older and wasn't as open and naive as in the first book. I still clearly pictured each scene though. Generally the strands of the novel resolve by the end. Although this may be unrealistically tidy, as a reader, I was pleased to get answers to my many questions. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers, Faber & Faber for the opportunity to read this book.

[Mary Picken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Hamer is a beautiful writer. She conveys beautifully both the fragility and the strength of her characters. Reading about Carmel and her mother, Beth is like walking on thin ice. You find yourself holding your breath, wondering which one is going to crack first and plunge into deathly cold waters.

I have not read The Girl in the Red Coat and did not realise The Lost Girls was a return to those characters. I’m not sure it matters, because from the beginning I was caught up in Kate Hamer’s exquisitely painful prose.

Carmel Wakeford was kidnapped when she was only 8 years old. Taken out of the country to the United States, she was taken by a Preacher who used her in his travelling preaching sessions. He renamed her Mercy and together they spent 5 years visiting mainly rural fairs.

Then Carmel was rescued and brought home to her mother, Beth, and the pair now live in England. But Carmel has to live with the blaze of publicity that accompanied her return and to know that her life is the stuff of tabloid fodder that never really goes away. She will forever be that ‘lost girl’.

Beth doesn’t really know how to relate to Carmel. She doesn’t really understand what Carmel went through and she knows her daughter is a very different young woman to the girl she lost. But though Carmel left a trail pointing to her real name wherever she went in the States, she knows that she was not the first Mercy to have preached alongside this man. On her return to her mother, isolated, angry at her mother for losing her, she becomes obsessed about what could have happened to the other Mercy – the one she replaced.

The Lost Girls is told from the perspective of the original Mercy, Carmel and Beth. Mercy’s story is harrowing. She has a harsh upbringing and turned to the church as a way of finding a loving home as much as anything. Each of these women is searching for something to anchor them and make them feel seen and comfortable in their situations.

Carmel is so desperate to find out what happened to Mercy that she does the unthinkable and in so doing, she fractures the uneasy peace between mother and daughter.

The Lost Girls explores, sometimes very painfully, the relationship between mothers and daughters. No-one blames Beth for Carmel’s disappearance more than Beth herself. As both women struggle to re-establish their relationship, the reader feels the pain that flows through both these damaged characters. Yet there is redemption in that pain and Carmel’s quest for answers is her way to help herself repair the emotional connection between her and her mother.

Verdict: Poignant and beautifully expressed, The Lost Girls is an intense and unsettling novel about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters; about the pain and redemption to be found in facing trauma and learning how to survive. It is haunting, emotional, and sometimes really painful and it touches the heart. It has fantastic writing, superior plotting and is a deeply engrossing read.

[Joke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kan een moeder-dochter band hersteld worden na jarenlang van elkaar gescheiden geweest te zijn? Dat dit trauma’s heeft veroorzaakt en er een nieuwe vertrouwensband opgebouwd moet worden, is begrijpelijk. Maar hoe alles gaat verlopen valt niet te voorspellen.

De verdwenen meisjes is goed als standalone te lezen en is het vervolg op Het meisje in de rode jas, waarmee Kate Hamer in 2015 debuteerde. In De verdwenen meisjes zijn moeder Beth en dochter Carmel vervreemd van elkaar en zitten vol schuldgevoelens. Dochter Carmel is werd ontvoerd op achtjarige leeftijd. Acht jaar later keert ze terug. Moeder Beth en Carmel proberen de draad weer op te pakken, maar iedere dag worden ze herinnerd aan wat er is gebeurd. Na jaren van hereniging lopen ze op eieren en leven langs elkaar heen.

Onaangepast
De eenentwintigjarige Carmel is onaangepast aan de maatschappij en struint de rivieroevers af als modderjutter. In haar hoofd heeft zich een beeld gevormd van een opdracht die ze van zichzelf moet uitvoeren en die haar meevoert naar het verleden. Dit met haar moeder delen kan ze niet, dus verdwijnt ze op een dag na een heftige ruzie, Beth in afwachting achterlatend of ze terug zal keren.

Karaktergedreven
Het is een karaktergedreven, traag verlopend verhaal dat vanuit drie verschillende personen verteld wordt en heen en weer gaat in de tijd. De gedeeltes die zich afspelen in 1999 worden vanuit Mercy verteld, een meisje dat ontvoerd werd voordat Carmel verdween. Ze geven de lezer een beeld van haar armoedige leven. In het heden lezen we vanuit Carmel en Beth. Door deze manier van vertellen komen emoties tot leven. Hierdoor blijft het boek boeien.

De lezer krijgt diverse terugblikken voorgeschoteld naar de tijd van de ontvoering van Carmel en die ervoor. Het zorgt dat je gaat begrijpen wat haar bezighoudt en waardoor ze zo met ‘verdwenen meisjes’ bezig is.

Teloorgaand individu
Het prikkelende onderwerp ten spijt heeft Hamer een complexe schrijfstijl met lange zinnen die niet makkelijk leesbaar zijn. Om in de stijl van de auteur te praten: “Een teloorgaand individu staat aan het begin van een lawine die haar het dal insleurt en bijna alles verwoest wat dierbaar is”.

Dit is Carmel ten voeten uit, die vergeleken kan worden met een bol wol die langzaam afgewikkeld wordt en zo haar emoties ontward. Je leest door de ogen van een goedgelovig kind en voelt hoe kwetsbaar Mercy is en wat Carmel bezighoudt. Het verdriet van Beth kom goed tot uiting in de volgende zin.

“Het is haar geketende, beschadigde, uitgeholde hart dat ik zie en in dit geval kan ik niethelpen, want het verleden is geschreven en daar is niets aan te verhelpen of te veranderen.”

Spanning zit nauwelijks in deze indringende psychologische roman. Het is de manier waarop de geloofwaardige personages ieder voor zich worstelen met hun opgelopen trauma’s en zo ieder op hun eigen manier het verhaal dragen.

Ik heb De verdwenen meisjes voor Bazarow gelezen en ontving van Boekerij mijn recensie exemplaar.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carmel has been returned home after being abducted and spending years with a travelling mad man and his cult. Now 21, she is trying to return to her old life, and find out who she is, who she has become, and who she was before she was kidnapped. Her mother Beth still can’t believe she has her daughter back. She finds herself tiptoeing around the house, trying to regain a relationship with her, afraid of saying the wrong thing, or the wrong action causing an argument. They don’t know how to be mother and daughter any more.

As Carmel tries to dig into her memories and figure out who she is, she starts to realise she may not have been the only lost girl. She is haunted by this and she spirals into deeper and deeper manic thinking trying to figure out who these other girls are. Meanwhile Beth does all she can to not lose her daughter again.

This is a follow on from Kate Hamer’s Girl in the Red Coat. While it will give more context to the characters and what they are suffering from if you have read the previous book, it stands relatively well as a stand alone. The book works in a series of flashbacks in different characters' point of view, and slowly pieces together the picture of what exactly happened to the lost girls.
It was an interesting read, but for a main character you would imagine you would have much sympathy for, Carmel is very unlikable at times. She is very self centred and doesn’t consider how her mother may be feeling, or anyone else in all of this. She does what she wants, when she wants, regardless of the consequences. She acts very childlike for someone of her age, and you ask yourself is it due to the upbringing she had. In general it was an interesting read, a little slow and dragged out in places, but a good story overall.

*I received this copy from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

[Denis Wheller · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1999, Mercy Roberts, 6, left home, joined a travelling preacher, and vanished. In 2000, Carmel Wakeford, 8, also vanished, but was rescued in 2005. Mercy had left her junky parents in a crumbling shack in the Appalachian Mountains, whereas Carmel had left a solid middle-class couple in Norfolk, England. Both girls were taken willingly by the same preacher, because he believed they could perform miraculous healings. Whether he really believed that, or just found them useful to his travelling ministry, is never made clear. When Carmel was rescued in Texas, it was revealed that he had tried to persuade her to use the name Mercy Roberts, and that she had travelled using a passport bearing that name and Mercy’s picture. The case had become quite famous, but interest had died down. No trace of Mercy had been found in the following eight years, during which Carmel had developed an obsession with missing girls and expressed this to some extent by becoming a Mudlark, searching the banks of the Thames as a surrogate for searching for Mercy. Shortly after her twenty-first birthday, a reporter, ostensibly doing a feature on her hobby, brought her name back into the limelight. This and other incidents drive her to become more focussed in her searching with surprising consequences.
The book is written mainly from Carmel and her mother’s perspective, although there is a lot of background describing Mercy’s childhood and history. The writing is quite elaborate in some ways, particularly in sections describing events in the American deep South, which have a distinctly “folksy” ring. The characters are strong and the resolution to the mystery is revealed after a surprising twist. I think 3.5 is a fair estimate which rounds to 4.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The Lost Girls’ is Kate Hamer’s sequel to ‘The Girl in the Red Coat’, a compelling, thought-provoking novel. There is certainly a tale to tell about what happens after those who are lost are returned home. Carmel, once abducted and now a young woman living with her mother in London, is one such lost girl. She uses cinema as an extended metaphor to describe her predicament:
‘...being unlost is not the same as being found… there’s a final scene where all is resolved. They are all healed, the story goes! Then the characters turn into sunlight, vanish into their futures and there is a breathless pause as the screen turns dark.
‘That’s where I live now, in the darkness of the cinema, the blank screen, that moment.
‘There is no ending.’
Throughout the novel, Hamer explores the ways in which Carmel tries to move forward and how she has been influenced by her years of captivity. Running concurrently is the story of Mercy, a girl from the Appalachian Mountains girl who disappeared after becoming caught up with a religious cult. A small child, looking after her drug addicted parents, we can appreciate just how much the promise of love, security and salvation would appeal to her. But no one knows what happened to her and nobody much cares.
I wish I had enjoyed this as much as Hamer’s previous novel. She gives us two complex characters but, to my mind, the nuanced psychological exploration that I expected was missing. Better to read Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ if that’s what you’re hoping for.
My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you again to Netgalley, Kate Hamer and Faber & Faber for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to also read 'The girl in the red coat' prior to this, and I have to say, I felt Kate Hamer stepped it up in this new story.

"Lost, she narrowly escaped disaster. Beth is desperate to return to normality. After a years-long ordeal, her daughter is finally home and safe. But Carmel has questions she can't ignore about the cult that kidnapped her, and about the preacher who gave her another girl's name. Found, she must survive a miracle. Digging into her past, Carmel uncovers secrets which suggest that she wasn't the only lost girl - and which puts her in danger all over again. While her mother struggles to salvage the safety they've only just found, Carmel tries to come to terms with who she has become. One question, a mystery at the heart of her disappearance as a child, haunts her: What happened to the other lost girls? "

I'm never a fan of books which swap between narrators and so the flipping between Carmel, Beth and Mercy is not something I was looking forward to. Especially with the change in time-zones also. HOWEVER, this worked really nicely AND the changes in perspective complement each other well. Listening to the audiobook alongside the written story also helps with these changing perspectives. I had seen some reviews that the flipping between characters was quick and sometimes confusing - and so this helped work well.

Considering the premise of the book, this could have been a particularly difficult and emotive book to read, however the author has managed to keep this a light-read and lightly touches on the more harrowing and disturbing topics. Whether this is a good thing, I am still in two minds, as I think it diminishes the depth of the characters and their experiences slightly. I definitely was not expecting 'the lost girls' to be who they were...I won't say more on this but it was definitely an unusual twist.

All of this aside, it was a good read, and a high 3 for me. I will also definitely look out for more novels by Kate Hamer.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequel to The Girl in the Red Coat and I definitely recommend reading that first as it explain the background to this book. This is told from the perspective of three people Mercy, Carmel and Beth. Three girls/women who have had to death with heartbreak and sadness and I felt compassion for all of them. I thought this was really well written and very enjoyable.

Briefly, after five years with her kidnapper Carmel was returned to her mother Beth at age 13 but we meet her again at age 21. Carmel is still seriously disturbed and her relationship with Beth is difficult. Carmel blames her mother for her abduction; Beth blames herself. Before she can move on with her life Carmel needs to know what happened to Mercy, the girl who was with the preacher before her. Can Carmel finally allow herself to throw off the hold the preacher had over her?

Whilst the stories from Carmel and Beth are good it was Mercy’s tale that really touched me. Her life with addicts for parents is desperately hard but despite that she loves them and does everything she can to help them. I would have liked to know what happened to Carmel, and consequently Beth, in the ‘missing years’ but that aside I can’t say more for fear of spoilers; I found this to be a really good emotional read with some great characters. Reading some of the negative reviews I felt we must have been reading a different book. An excellent sequel to a moving book both of which I enjoyed. 4.5⭐️

[Kendelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review from yours truly. I’ll admit that I was either a bit mislead or didn’t read the read blurb properly, so I was unaware that I was reading a sequel until I read other reviews after finishing the book. But even with this in mind, it works well enough as a stand alone novel, at least from my perspective.

A young woman who has been returned to her mother after being abducted by a cult is finding it hard to find her place within not only society but her own family. We get to read from 3 different PoVs, the abducted girl herself, Carmel plus her mother Beth and a young girl who was abducted before her named Mercy. The book mostly focuses on Carmel coming to terms with her abduction plus her “new” life with her mother, her mother trying to give her the space to heal and also Mercy’s sad story and Carmel trying to find out what became of her predecessor, as Mercy was essentially abducted too.

I had difficulty connecting with the characters, they always felt a little out of reach and distant to me with perhaps the exception of Mercy. But while I can’t say that I loved the book, it was still an easy read and the author wrote more than well enough to cause me to want to find out what happened to these Lost Girls, Mercy in particular. Some of the side plots points that seemed major didn’t seem to make much sense nor add to the story in any way, although I might be missing the significance of them since I haven’t read the first novel, The Girl in the Red Coat. Yet it was still an easy page turner for me, hence the 3 stars. I may go back and read the original novel once I’ve gotten through my huge to-be-read list! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy.

[Vincie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ik vraag me echt af what the fuck ik gelezen heb?

Dit zou een thriller moeten zijn, maar het is oprecht de allersaaiste thriller die ik ooit gelezen heb.

Misschien komt dat doordat het een sequel is op 'Het meisje in de rode jas' en die heb ik niet gelezen, maar het staat nergens specifiek aangegeven dat je die eerst gelezen moet hebben voor je dit boek leest. Sterker nog: pas toen ik het in Goodreads toevoegde aan 'currently reading' kwam ik erachter dat het een sequel is.

Op zich is er met de schrijfstijl van Hamer niks mis. Maar het hele verhaal… er zit geen enkele spanning in, en het plot is zo verschrikkelijk saai. Ik had op basis van de flaptekst en de lovende woorden van andere auteurs een spannende pageturner verwacht.

Het is meer een psychologische roman, een soort coming-of-age dan dat ik het daadwerkelijk als thriller zou classificeren. Er lopen meerdere verhaallijnen door elkaar maar ze zijn allen niet relevant voor het plot.

Je haalt je van alles in je hoofd wat er met Mercy gebeurd kan zijn, wat voor gekke dingen Carmel allemaal zou kunnen uitspoken, hoe haar missie gaat aflopen, hoe de ontmoeting met de evangelist gaat zijn… maar het loopt dodelijk saai af. Niet eens dodelijk. Mercy blijkt niet levend begraven, maar gewoon opgestaan nadat ze ingegraven was. Ze leeft nog. De gevonden schedel komt in een museum. En wat de woorden van Carmels moeder, Beth, toevoegen is me al helemaal een raadsel.

Een pure deceptie, vandaar maar 1*.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I eagerly dived into this sequel to the Girl in the Red Coat and although not as fast paced it was still yet another page turner. The story of abduction into a cult underpins the plot but for me was not the main focus. It’s an emotional and heartfelt portrayal of a mother/daughter relationship as they try to recover and rebuild their bond after a forced absence and the journey Carmel, the daughter, takes to find answers in order to move forward. It was emotionally absorbing, and I read it over just a few days.

We see a young girls innocence and vulnerability again, this time in Mercy’s character and her inclusion makes it a robust and complete standalone story. Having read the first book however, the story remained very much about Carmel for me, about the damage inflicted and how this manifested itself in her character as a young woman. The fragility of the relationship between mother and daughter after being reunited and the tiptoeing around each other is palpable. It’s also a testament to how far a mother will go for her daughter to be able to move on even if she doesn’t agree with and is fearful of the journey herself. Kate captures this and the bravery of both women with dignity. I may have shed a tear or two……

With thanks to Faber and Faber for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

[Paddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows Hamer’s The Girl in the Red Coat. It continues 8 years after Carmel is reunited with her mother Beth. The Lost Girls involves a similar narrative structure, in that Carmel and Beth alternate as first person narrators, but the book also involves third person narration about Mercy Roberts, a girl abducted before Carmel. Mercy's identity is imposed on Carmel by her abductors. This book of about loss of course: Beth's loss of her daughter, her struggle to revive her relationship, and Carmel's loss of her identity, albeit both temporary. The writing occasionally forces the metaphors of loss, but the altering first person voices seem more clearly drawn in this book, helped by the third person accounts of Mercy and her troubled life, neglected by her parents, and living in dire poverty. The plot is not complicated, and so the reader’s interest must be maintained through characterisation and dialogue. Mercy’s character emerges as the most nuanced and multidimensional, aided by the third-person perspective that allows for broader description of the dynamics between the various people pushing Mercy in different directions for different purposes. This amplifies the feeling of peril for the character, which is not quite sustained for the main characters of Beth and Carmel.
With thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for a copy of this book.

[Sarah Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is this sequel to the girl in the Red coat and tells the story of the main character from the previous book as she becomes a young adult and comes to terms with her period of captivity as a young child, I think you would struggle to understand this book, if you hadn’t read the previous novel The girl in the Red coat .I had read and enjoyed this novel, but it was some months months ago and I was quite a long way into the new a story before I understood who both girls were. Although it was clear that the main character if the second novel was the same as the main character of the first novel, it took me some time to understand the other girl being mentioned was the girl who’s Passport she had found in the campervan and who turned out to be the previous child taken by the Child kidnapper. I think that the book really is best read after reading the first book, and it probably wouldn’t stand up very well on its own as a standalone novel
I was quickly enthralled by the story of the children, and found the book flowed nicely and was an enjoyable read. The authors writing style is an easy enjoyable read.
The author has the ability to describe people’s characteristics well and that by the end of the story you know both of the young girls and the mother of the kidnapped girl well, they felt like real people to me.
The book was published in the UK on the 16th of February 2023 by Faber and Faber Ltd.
I read a copy of the book on NetGalley UK This review will appear on NetGalley UK Goodreads my book blog bionicsarahsbooks.wordpress.com and on Amazon, UK

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another mother and daughter story and another five star read! 21-year-old Carmel was kidnapped at eight years old and taken to the US by an itinerant preacher to perform healing miracles on his congregations. At 13, she is found and returned to her mother, Beth – but what has happened to Mercy, the preacher’s first “protegee”?
A midwestern child of drug addicted parents, she, too, was exploited by the preacher. Carmel knows of her existence, and is determined to find out what happened to her. But to do so, she has to contact the preacher once more – something Beth is profoundly unhappy about.
This was a wonderful read, told from Mercy, Carmel and Beth’s point of view. Mercy is a joy of a little girl; Carmel a troubled and vulnerable adult. But it is Beth I empaphise with most. Imagine losing our little daughter for five years, then losing her all over again as she struggles against the trauma of her abduction and recovery.
The plot twists and turns, never failing to keep the reader enthralled, but it is the characters that really drive this story.
Atmospheric, chilling and as mesmerising as the preacher’s hooded eyes.
This is a sequel to The Girl In The Red Coat, but I read it stand-alone and did not even realise it was a sequel – that’s how good it is.

[E Dod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read The Girl in the Red Coat very recently and loved it, I could not wait to read this follow up. This novel really did not disappoint and I devoured it within a few days.

We meet characters Beth, the mum and daughter Carmel. They have been reunited after many years apart due to Carmel being kidnapped by a man. Carmel was missing for years but managed to get back home. Carmel is now in her early 20s and still adjusting to life. Beth and Carmel's relationship is strained and this is portrayed beautifully throughout this novel.

Carmel is trying to figure our if the man who took her took other girls as we know from book 1 that Carmel was a somewhat kind of replacement for another girl he kidnapped called Mercy.

Told through both Carmel and Beth's point of view, this novel really is an interesting read. I feel like it would have been good to have the follow up book literally carrying on from when Carmel comes home as I feel like that would have been possibly more intriguing. None the less, this is a good read and I loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kate Hamer and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.