Linda Finlay: Monday's Child [2016] paperback

A little girl is found abandoned on a beach one chilly Monday in October, alone apart from the body of her mother, cold beside her.

Rendered completely silent by her traumatic experience, she is given the name Monday by the woman who discovers her and takes her to the Red Cliffs Ragged School - an old, crumbling building perched above the Torquay bay.

Her saviour, twenty-two-year old Sarah Sullivan, has also had a tough life. But when she was summoned to help out at Red Cliffs - a haven for poverty-stricken children from the cities - by her godfather Samuel she also found her own second chance within its walls. Now she will do anything to help the mischievous, loveable children there. Especially Monday whose continued silence tears at her heart.

But with Samuel's health failing and his grasping nephew Christian eager to inherit, Red Cliffs is under threat. Sarah needs to fight - the children need her, and surprisingly she find she needs them. Will she be able to save the school and protect the little girl she's come to love so much, the one she's named Monday's Child?

Monday's Child is the first in the Red Cliff Ragged School series, soon to be followed by Orphans and Angels.

Praise for Linda Finlay

'Warm and atmospheric, you can practically taste the sea breeze' The Express

'Take time out for a page-turner about family mysteries and betrayal' Take-a-Break

'A compelling saga . . . with a surprising and emotional ending which weaves together the storylines in a most satisfying way. Strongly recommended and a great read on a Cornish holiday' cjbrownecrimewriter.com

'A captivating and emotional novel about a strong woman struggling to find her own way in the world when others wish to see her fail' Winstone Books