The Vanished Child Book

New England, 1887. A millionaire is brutally murdered. The only witness, his young grandchild, mysteriously disappears . . . Eighteen years later, in Switzerland, a man with no memory is "recognized" as Richard Knight, the missing child. Thus begins a masterpiece of historical suspense, as one man's obsession leads him toward a shattering truth—and to a killer, still at large. . . .

"Stunning . . . Tells a grim tale of murder and duplicity in stately prose that subtly enhances the psychological horrors."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Has all the ingredients of a juicy novel: greed, suspicion, love, madness and amnesia. Sarah Smith pulls it all together with a rare talent for telling a complex story in beautifully simple language."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] deliciously intriguing tale. . . An artful literary puzzler featuring the kind of thick period detail and narrative intricacy mastered by Charles Dickens. . . This one belongs on the permanent shelf."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

Publishers Weekly

Smith's first novel is a stunning tale of amnesia, child abuse and murder in turn-of-the-century New England. (Dec.)