It’s 1954 and Adam Carter is twelve years old, an only child with no friends nor any self confidence. His father Edward is a bully of a man. A successful and ruthless businessman, he breeds fear into the heart of his family. Adam’s mother Peggy is too cowed to protect her son, so Adam’s only support comes in the shape of Phil Wallis, the school bus driver.
One particular afternoon, when Adam is his last drop of the day, Phil decides to accompany him along the darkening wood land to his house, never suspecting that as they chat innocently, in the house at the end of the track a terrible tragedy is unfolding which will change Adam’s life forever.
Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn, one of ten children. At the age of sixteen, Josephine met and married her husband Ken, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University. She was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home, but she went into teaching – and started to write her first full-length novel. She won the ‘Superwoman of Great Britain’ Award, for which her family had secretly entered her, at the same time as her novel was accepted for publication.