Eighteen-year-old Emma has loving parents, a happy home life, and a promising future ahead of her.

So why, one morning, does she leave home without a trace?

Her parents Cath and Jim are devastated. They have no idea why Emma left, where she is - or even whether she is still alive.

A year passes, and the couple are still coping with Emma's absence, not to mention all of the unanswered questions she left behind.

What Cath and Jim cannot know is that, close by, Emma is also struggling with her new life - in particular, with the trauma that caused her to run away in the first place.

But the three of them must realise that, in order to trust each other once again, they have to come to terms with the secrets of their pasts; secrets that have been hidden for years ...

Secrets that have the power to destroy them.

The Shadow Child is a book of hope and reconciliation, of coming to terms with trauma and learning to love again. Most of all, it's about how you can never quite escape from the shadows of your past - especially when one of those shadows is a child ...