Nula comes home from work to find her two-year-old son is missing. He should have been returned by his nanny hours earlier.

Maggie is the nanny and also Nula's cousin. She has grown increasingly attached to the child and can't face losing him when Nula decides he is ready for nursery.

This is an astonishingly vivid tale of both women's experiences. Maggie and Nula share a history, on Anglesey, Wales, which is gradually revealed and comes to explain, in part, why Maggie feels she is justified in what she is doing.

This is an excellent book, beautifully written with insight and sensitivity. I'm not sure I entirely believed in Maggie's motivation and I didn't like Nula, neither her past behaviour nor her future intentions. However, this didn't detract from my fascination with the tale and my enjoyment in turning the pages to find out how the situation was going to develop.

I was introduced to the author, Bethan Roberts, when I heard her speak at the Charleston Book Festival. She was on stage with another author whom I knew and had chosen to hear, yet now I can't remember who that was. Bethan Roberts was promoting her book 'The Good Plain Cook'. She was a beautiful and inspiring speaker and I loved the book.