Abby is engaged to Jack who, from a previous marriage, has a 6-year old daughter.  She disappears from a beach whilst in Abby’s charge.  Jack naturally blames Abby and the police assume the child drowned.  Abby has different ideas and so embarks upon a year-long journey to find the girl. I found it moving and quite disturbing.

Comparison: Jodi Picoult, Heather Gudenkauf, Diane Chamberlain.

Synopsis

Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach in San Francisco, Abby Mason - photographer, fiancee, soon-to-be-stepmother - looks away from six-year-old Emma for an instant. By the time she looks back, Emma has disappeared. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a mother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma's father finds solace in religion. But Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost.

Reviews

'In this spare page-turner, Richmond draws complex tensions from a the set setup of a child gone missing...Wholly effective...beautifully paced' Publishers Weekly

What a wonderful novel! The lush prose kept me turning pages as surely as the compelling plot did. Suspenseful, richly imagined, and ultimately hopeful, The Year of Fog is a keeper. Michelle Richmond is a talent to watch. Joshilyn Jackson, author of GODS IN ALABAMA

Richmond gracefully explores the nature of memory and perception in key passages that never slow the suspense of the search...this is a page-turner with a philosophical bent Booklist

A gripping tale of a woman's search for her fiance's missing daughter People Magazine

About the Author

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Fog. Her award-winning stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, The Oxford American, and elsewhere. She has been a James Michener Fellow, and her fiction has received the Associated Writing Programs Award and the Mississippi Review Prize. A native of Mobile, Alabama, Michelle lives with her husband and son in San Francisco, where she is at work on her next novel. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation