The Drowning Child

The Drowning Child
Alex Barclay

The heart-stopping new thriller in the Ren Bryce series by Alex Barclay, bestselling author of DARKHOUSE and KILLING WAYS.When Special Agent Ren Bryce is called to Tate, Oregon to investigate the disappearance of twelve-year-old Caleb Veir, she finds a town already in mourning.Two other young boys have died recently, although in very different circumstances. As Ren digs deeper, she discovers that all is not as it seems in the Veir household – and that while Tate is a small town, it guards some very big secrets…Can Ren uncover the truth before more children are harmed?

Copyright (#ulink_87e4436d-e132-5a1c-97aa-8c00b6faacc4)

HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Copyright © Alex Barclay 2016

Cover design layout © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Cover photographs © Stephen Mulcahey/Arcangel Images (boy); Mike Dobel/Arcangel Images (background)

Alex Barclay 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 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, down-loaded, 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-books

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007494583

Version: 2016-08-10

Praise for Alex Barclay: (#ulink_3962b8d6-6d32-5e53-8a9f-6deb87edb7ec)

‘Gripping, stylish, convincing’ Sunday Times

‘The rising star of the hard-boiled crime fiction world, combining wild characters, surprising plots and massive backdrops with a touch of dry humour’ Mirror

‘Tense, no-punches-pulled thriller that will have you on the edge of your deckchair.’ Woman and Home

‘Explosive’ Company

‘Compelling’ Glamour

‘Excellent summer reading … Barclay has the confidence to move her story along slowly, and deftly explores the relationships between her characters’ Sunday Telegraph

‘The thriller of the summer’ Irish Independent

‘If you haven’t discovered Alex Barclay, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon’ Image Magazine

Dedication (#ulink_de5c205b-9db2-5963-b9f4-3852cfffc6be)

For my editor, the wonderful Sarah Hodgson

Epigraph (#ulink_a1c3331d-ecb5-5e5a-91ab-dc181782a53d)

To a Dying Girl

How quickly must she go?

She calls dark swans from mirrors everywhere:

From halls and porticos, from pools of air.

How quickly must she know?

They wander through the fathoms of her eye,

Waning southerly until their cry

Is gone where she must go.

How quickly does the cloudfire streak the sky,

Tremble on the peaks, then cool and die?

She moves like evening into night,

Forgetful as the swans forget their flight

Or spring the fragile snow,

So quickly she must go.

Clinton F. Larson

Contents

Cover (#u949b10ab-3431-5eca-9d29-bf10326530c1)

Title Page (#ubbc80ec4-7dd2-59fe-828c-7dfc1601dd73)

Copyright (#u6b7f9115-8158-5e0f-bf7b-231c4230f338)

Praise (#u8d3ebcdd-a821-57cf-b377-6875de6b6d68)

Dedication (#ud05e0784-23c1-5c74-9603-ce6522cb58d6)