About the book
Amanda Tomlin arrives in the harbour town of Alderwick with her dog Jim and plans for a small gallery. Six paintings from a house clearance give her something to hang on the walls, and the first sale feels like a promising start. Then the buyer telephones. The child in the red coat is no longer looking where it was before.
Amanda has photographs to prove the picture has changed, but no explanation for how. As she searches for the artist behind the initials VJ, she finds herself drawn into Linda Wilson’s troubled relationship with her brother. A quarrel over their late parents’ belongings has left them with plenty to say and very little they are willing to discuss.
Between serving customers, finding her place in the town and getting to know a man from her cookery class, Amanda begins to make room for her own painting again. Helping Linda may be harder. She can listen, ask questions and look carefully at the evidence, but she cannot decide what another person is ready to forgive.
The Red Child begins The Gallery of Unfinished Goodbyes, a cosy contemporary fantasy series about art, ordinary lives and the conversations people put off.
