Beginning ~ with a body on a beach

'The body of a woman has been found on the beach in Whitley Bay,' the newsreader announced in a suitably sombre tone.

Where The Story Starts ~ by Imogen Clark, 2019, fiction (England)

As single mother Leah struggles to get her children ready one morning, the doorbell rings.  Standing on the doorstep of their terraced house in Whitley Bay is a well-dressed stranger, Clio, who feels an emotional tie to the house that she can’t explain.  The story should end there, but a long-buried secret is already on its way to the surface.

In some ways the two women couldn’t be more different:  Leah is a mother of two and the daughter of a barmaid; Clio is a perennially single heiress to her baroness mother’s estate.  But where Leah lacks grown-up company, Clio lacks any experience of the real world, and the unlikely friendship sparked by their curious first meeting offers both of them a welcome respite from the routine of their lives.  It is a friendship that will answer questions neither of them knew to ask, uncovering secret stories from the past that have stayed hidden for decades.  But will it also be the catalyst for them to finally feel that they belong?

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts 

Book Beginnings on Fridays.