Cover Art: Michelle Brackenborough
It was always been just the three of them – Mum, his sister Fi and Spey. He’s never known his dad, Benni, missing in action from family life under the care of Her Majesty’s Prison Service since forever.
When an unexpected visitor appears on Christmas morning, Spey has two options – he can rage against his absent father who’s now sitting on the sofa and wants back in to his life or ignore him completely, as if he never existed. Torn between seeing his mum happy again and doubting the intentions of someone he hardly knows, Spey takes a leap.
When a parcel arrives for him that contains the remnants of a flower collage he created years before with a long-lost friend, he starts to consider that it might be a cry for help and that Dee, the lover of flowers that taught him so much about the world around him, is in trouble.
As he unearths her latest movements he needs to navigate streets filled with drugs and dangerous men who control her every move. Spey has no option but to ask his dad for help. Benni uses his contacts to help him trace the gang she’s unwittingly involved in but it’s not a straight road to get there, by any means.
Can Spey reach her in time? Will Benni get the chance to be the dad he’s always wanted to be? Will Dee escape the clutches of the gang world she finds herself in and return home? You’ll have to read it to find out…
Told in a dual narrative format with chapter headings graced with beautiful flower illustrations by Michelle Brackenborough, the reader walks between Spey’s inner turmoil and Dee’s entrapment selling drugs under the watchful eye of Chez and his violent gang. Themes of friendship, forgiveness and family loyalty run through this fast-paced edge-of-the-seat thriller as Patrice Lawrence seamlessly takes you on a journey through their very different worlds. From Benni’s life in prison to Dee’s oppositional defiant disorder that is sensitively woven in to her character arc, the reader is given full insight into her personality and ultimately, the peace they both seek away from danger.
