The Drowned Village

The Drowned Village
Kathleen McGurl

‘Drew me straight in and kept me hooked.’ Linda Finlay‘Really touching, a gently gripping mystery.’ Kerry BarrettBeneath the surface lie forgotten secrets…A village destroyedIt’s the summer of 1935 and eleven-year-old Stella Walker is preparing to leave her home forever. Forced to evacuate to make way for a new reservoir, the village of Brackendale Green will soon be lost. But before the water has even reached them, a dreadful event threatens to tear Stella’s family apart.An uncovered secretPresent day, and a fierce summer has dried up the lake and revealed the remnants of the deserted village. Now an old woman, Stella begs her granddaughter Laura to make the journey she can’t. She’s sure the village still holds answers for her but, with only days until the floodwaters start to rise again, Laura is in a race against time to solve the mysteries of Stella’s almost forgotten past.Haunting and evocative, The Drowned Village reaches across the decades in an unforgettable tale of love, loss and family.

KATHLEEN McGURL lives near the sea in Bournemouth, UK, with her husband and elderly tabby cat. She has two sons who are now grown up and have left home. She began her writing career creating short stories, and sold dozens to women’s magazines in the UK and Australia. Then she got side-tracked onto family history research – which led eventually to writing novels with genealogy themes. She has always been fascinated by the past, and the ways in which it can influence the present, and enjoys exploring these links in her novels.

When not writing or working at her full-time job in IT, she likes to go out running. She also adores mountains and is never happier than when striding across the Lake District fells, following a route from a Wainwright guidebook.

You can find out more at her website: http://kathleenmcgurl.com/ (http://kathleenmcgurl.com/), or follow her on Twitter: @KathMcGurl (https://twitter.com/KathMcGurl).

Also by Kathleen McGurl

The Emerald Comb

The Pearl Locket

The Daughters of Red Hill Hall

The Girl from Ballymor

Copyright (#ulink_7c83f4b4-f58a-5d83-b9a1-20d7cfabef2e)

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Kathleen McGurl 2018

Kathleen McGurl asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © September 2018 ISBN: 9780008236984

For my husband Ignatius.

May there be many more Lake District

walking holidays ahead of us.

Contents

Cover (#u08802a44-40ff-5ac7-9660-3785f93bef29)

About the Author (#u01f134bd-582a-5d3c-b115-e16893352461)

Also by Kathleen McGurl (#ulink_a91161bd-49de-5e31-9938-b1b2ff4959e0)

Title Page (#ub1e9fe27-3667-5b2f-ae6c-1bf60c192925)

Copyright (#ulink_02a0f296-0cf1-55f5-af8e-59416ea390f4)

Dedication (#udfb31026-8e94-593a-b0d8-5dc2a5422596)

Prologue (#ulink_012e96dc-3a25-5806-bfde-82ddd5d213e6)

Chapter 1: LAURA, PRESENT DAY (#ulink_e8e0425c-96c3-5b8c-bad9-a22b9c3d6af0)

Chapter 2: JED, APRIL 1935 (#ulink_ceded73f-0dcd-5129-946e-bc1d3c23c337)

Chapter 3: LAURA (#ulink_80c90c66-2b9c-583b-9f8d-3700f107238b)

Chapter 4: JED (#ulink_1ecd6837-4ecd-526e-b693-515fa92e2440)

Chapter 5: LAURA (#ulink_85c47f28-2e4d-5c56-b4d3-ea2e4197becf)

Chapter 6: JED (#ulink_0af32bb5-dcd7-531e-a154-a0bdd0ba6902)

Chapter 7: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: JED (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: JED (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: JED (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14: STELLA, JULY 1935 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16: STELLA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17: LAURA (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18: STELLA (#litres_trial_promo)