Name: The Au Pair
Price: 5.49

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***NOW AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER***

COSMOPOLITAN 'BOOKS OF 2019 TO BRING TO YOUR BOOKCLUB'

'Entrancing, compelling, atmospheric, reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier. A beautiful read that delivers a shocking and satisfying ending' Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs Parrish

'Delicious and spellbinding . . . absolutely absorbing and scandalous' Booklist

'Enthralling and addictive' Lisa Ballantyne, bestselling author of The Guilty One

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Seraphine Mayes and her brother Danny are the first set of twins to be born at Summerbourne House. But on the day they were born their mother threw herself to her death, their au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of a stolen baby.

Now twenty-five, and mourning the recent death of her father, Seraphine uncovers a family photograph taken on the day the twins were born featuring both parents posing with just one baby. Seraphine soon becomes fixated with the notion that she and Danny might not be twins after all, that she wasn't the baby born that day and that there was more to her mother's death than she has ever been told...

Why did their beloved au pair flee that day?
Where is she now?
Does she hold the key to what really happened?

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'Don't just pick up and read Emma Rous' The Au Pair, dive into it and get washed away with it' A bookseller

'Filled with mystery and intrigue. I was gripped until the very last page!' Fiona Valpy, bestselling author of Sea of Memories

'This will keep you turning those pages. The characters are still playing on my mind' Jane Corry, bestselling author of My Husband's Wife

'One hell of a ride' New York Post

'Vivid characters, a magical setting and a tightly knitted plot . . . jaw-dropping climax' Bookpage

'Family secrets come to light in this compelling debut with a gothic touch and a shocking denouement. Enthralling and addictive' Lisa Ballantyne, bestselling author of The Guilty One

'A page-turner' Publisher's Weekly

'A juicy and compelling read by a promising new author' Shelf Awareness

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 29 OCT. 2018

Seraphine Mayes, the protagonist of British author Rous's atmospheric if muddled first novel, has so many questions, to which she despairs of getting answers, after her father's recent death. Like why the 25-year-old barely looks like either of her brothers, or what drove her mother to kill herself at the family's remote estate on the Norfolk coast the same day she and twin Danny arrived in July 1992. Then, while sorting through her father's effects, she finds a snapshot, taken that fateful day, showing her proud parents and big brother, Edwin, with a single newborn and resolves to track down the photographer, whom Edwin identifies as his au pair, Laura Silveira. Undeterred by pleas from her family to desist, as well as subsequent anonymous threats, Seraphine gradually teases open a dangerous Pandora's box of secrets about her family and the au pair who became part of it. Rous ably interweaves accounts from dual narrators Seraphine and Laura to fan the suspense, but her plot-driven page-turner eventually founders after a few too many fantastic turns.

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