The Missing Years

‘Powerful and propulsive, The Missing Years weaves a deft and intricate mystery around characters you truly care about, spanning heartbreaking decades of loss and love. Breathtaking.’ Ellery Lloyd

The stunning new novel from Abigail Dean exploring the life of a family after the youngest disappears A boy is missing. His whole family is lost. 1970. Cambridge, England. On a cold January morning, Audrey Knight wakes to find her five year old son, Robin, is missing from his bed. A young Police Constable arrives on the scene, keen to better the male detectives and prove her worth. Across the meadows, a teenage boy is watching, desperate to help the family he's admired from afar. And Robin's older sisters each harbor secrets about how they spent the night.

Robin's disappearance will change each of their lives forever. But the mystery is one that will take fifty years to solve, and its answer might destroy everything they hold dear.

Praise for Abigail Dean

‘Taut, elegant and heartbreaking’ Monica Ali

‘A brilliant character study of trauma, grief and survival’ Claire Fuller

'Wonderful… lives up to the hype’ Stephen King

‘Impossibly accomplished’ Chris Whitaker

‘The best book I’ve read in a very long time’ Cecelia Ahern

‘Gripping, disturbing and beautifully written’ Emilia Hart

‘Powerful, true, tender, and devastating’ Sara Collins

‘[A] mesmerising blend of crime and romance … remarkably psychologically rich’ Sunday Times, Pick of the month

© 2027 Hemlock Press (Audiobook): 9780008625696

Release date

Audiobook: 15 July 2027