The Cold Cold Sea - blog tour

BLOG TOUR

 The Cold Cold Sea

Blurb:

They stared at each other, and Maggie felt the tightness in her middle expand as it shifted, burning its way up… Painful sobs rose in her throat as Colin, his face expressionless now, reached for his mobile and tapped 999.

When three-year-old Olivia disappears from the beach, a happy family holiday comes to an abrupt end. Maggie is plunged into the darkest nightmare imaginable – what happened to her little girl? 

Further along the coast, another mother is having problems too. Jennifer's daughter Hailey is starting school, and it should be such a happy time, but the child is increasingly moody and silent. Family life has never seemed so awkward, and Jennifer struggles to maintain control.

The tide ebbs and flows, and summer dies, but there is no comfort for Maggie, alone now at the cottage, or for Jennifer, still swamped by doubts.

‘A psychologically astute, edge-of-the-seat story.’ Hilary Johnson

‘Unsettling and disturbing… I couldn’t put it down.’ Rebecca Muddiman

‘Breathtaking and utterly compelling.’ Debi Alper

 

Bio:

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Currently she teaches one day a week, and writes psychological suspense novels and feel-good novellas with (most of) the rest of her time.

Her writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty short stories published in women’s magazines. Several years later, she turned to psychological suspense fiction, and her seventh novel, Death Wish, was published by Bloodhound Books in August 2017.

Linda’s latest project is a series of feel-good novellas, set on the banks of Lake Constance and just minutes from her home in north-east Switzerland. She really appreciates having the views enjoyed by her characters right on her own doorstep!

 

Links:

Amazon Author Page: viewAuthor.at/LindaHuber

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlindahuber

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaHuber19

website: http://lindahuber.net/

 

EXTRACT

Exc. 4 TCCS  Several weeks after Olivia disappears, Maggie leaves the holiday cottage. No body has been found.

 

Colin arrived later that afternoon and hugged her tightly. He was thinner now. So was she, of course. And he was calmer, much calmer than she was these days. He was grieving, but he had accepted that Olivia was gone.

‘Col, I – I can feel her. I can still feel her inside me.’

She sat on the bed, watching as he packed her clothes. He sat down beside her and she leaned against him gratefully. Whatever else had happened, the rift between them was healing. She knew that their relationship would never be the same again, but they were still together, and for the moment it was enough. She knew he didn’t blame her anymore, but that didn’t stop her blaming herself. She had, after all, killed her daughter.

‘Maggie, keep her there inside you. I know it’s hard, but for Joe’s sake, we have to go on.’

He was right, she thought. It was the only way forwards. She would go back to Carlton Bridge and Joe, take her pills, and wait for the pain to lessen. And she would keep her Livvy safe inside her forever.

‘I spoke to Mum and Dad,’ said Colin, clearing the few contents of the fridge into a cardboard box. ‘We thought we’d sell this place. It’s the wrong time of year, of course, but come the spring we’ll put it on the market. We could buy another cottage somewhere.’

‘Don’t,’ said Maggie. ‘I can’t think about that.’

Drearily, she pulled Livvy’s clothes from the wardrobe and laid them in a box. The toys went on top, first the dolls, and a couple of rainy-day jigsaws. And Old Bear. He’d been a third birthday present, Livvy had chosen him herself.

In spite of everything, Maggie found herself smiling at the memory. What a golden, glorious third birthday Livvy’d had. They’d baked a cake, of course – Olivia had wanted ‘a seaside cake’. So they’d constructed waves with green and blue marzipan, and even made a little marzipan boat. Olivia loved marzipan. The grandparents all visited for the weekend, a squash in the little cottage but fun, too. They’d had a party on the beach, with cake and scones and cream, and Old Bear tucked under Olivia’s arm all day. It was the last time all the family had been together.

Colin taped the box shut.

‘We’ll put it in the attic with the rest of her stuff,’ he said, and Maggie knew then that Olivia didn’t have a bedroom at Carlton Bridge anymore.

When there was nothing left to pack she helped Colin carry everything out to the car. Howard had returned to say goodbye. He had been so kind, he and Amanda both, and Maggie knew that in a different situation they would have become friends. But kindness hadn’t found Olivia, and Maggie could never think about Howard without feeling the agony of losing her child.

She gazed at the cottage. So many memories were here, happy memories originally, but now they were too painful to think about. And this would be her last time at Cove Cottage, maybe the last time at Newquay, too, unless by some miracle the sea did give Olivia back to them and they could come down to collect her. For the last time, she would say goodbye.

Howard gripped both her shoulders when she tried to say thank you.

‘I’ll watch every day, Maggie. I promise.’

She got into the car and they drove away and she didn’t look back.