Sophie Hannah: Hurting Distance

Table of Contents

Dedication

Title Page

Copyright Page

Part I - 2006

Chapter 1 - Monday, April 3

Chapter 2 - 4/3/06

Chapter 3 - Tuesday, April 4

Chapter 4 - 4/4/06

Chapter 5 - Tuesday, April 4

Chapter 6 - 4/4/06

Chapter 7 - 4/5/06

Chapter 8 - Wednesday, April 5

Chapter 9 - 4/5/06

Chapter 10 - Thursday, April 6

Chapter 11 - 4/6/06

Part II

Chapter 12 - 4/6/06

Chapter 13 - Thursday, April 6

Chapter 14 - 4/6/06

Chapter 15 - Friday, April 7

Chapter 16 - 4/7/06

Chapter 17 - Friday, April 7

Chapter 18 - 4/7/06

Chapter 19 - Friday, April 7

Chapter 20 - 4/8/06

Chapter 21 - 4/8/06

Part III

Chapter 22 - Saturday, April 8

Chapter 23 - 4/8/06

Chapter 24 - Saturday, April 8

Chapter 25 - 4/8/06

Chapter 26 - Saturday, April 8

Chapter 27 - 4/8/06

Chapter 28 - Sunday, April 9

Chapter 29 - 4/9/06

Chapter 30 - Sunday, April 9

Chapter 31 - Monday, April 10

Chapter 32 - 4/13/06

Chapter 33 - Thursday, May 4

Chapter 34 - 5/19/06

Acknowledgements

PENGUIN BOOKS

THE TRUTH-TELLER’S LIE

Sophie Hannah is the author of the international bestsellers Little Face , The Wrong Mother , and The Dead Lie Down . In 2004 she won the Daphne Du Maurier Prize for Suspense Fiction, and she is also an award-winning poet. She lives in Cambridge, England, with her husband and two children.

Praise for Sophie Hannah

The Dead Lie Down

“A master of intricate plotting, Hannah seamlessly melds the police procedural with a gothic-inspired whodunit.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Hannah deals brilliantly with the issues of artistic accomplishment and success, unrequited emotion, revenge, and retribution. This stunning psychological thriller from the author of the equally outstanding The Wrong Mother has the complexities of love at its core.”

— Booklist (starred review)

“This utterly gripping thriller should establish Hannah as one of the great unmissables of this genre—intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully gothic imagination.”

— The Times (London)

“Beautifully written and precision-engineered to unsettle.”

— The Guardian (London)

“A master class in plotting that adds twist after twist in a hectic finale.”

— The Sunday Times (London)

The Wrong Mother

“Shockingly (and refreshingly) blunt riffs about the violent emotions of motherhood and the familial yearnings of men, along with chilling and darkly funny revelations about lust and loyalty, make this novel one of the season’s most absorbing reads.”

— O, The Oprah Magazine

“Paced like a ticking time bomb with flawlessly distinct characterization, this is a fiercely fresh and un-put-downable read.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Sophie Hannah just gets better and better. Her plots are brilliantly cunning and entirely unpredictable. The writing is brilliant and brings us uncomfortably close to the dark, ambivalent impulses experienced by the parents of difficult, demanding children.”

— The Guardian (London)

“Sophie Hannah’s ingenious, almost surreal mysteries are so intricately constructed that it’s impossible to guess how they will end.”

— The Daily Telegraph (London)

“ The Wrong Mother is Hannah’s most accomplished novel yet. As the revelations tumble forth, the tension is screwed ever tighter until the final shocking outcome. Exemplary.”

— Daily Express (London)

Little Face

“Dark psychological suspense . . . The power this novel packs derives from narrators that play fast and loose with what they know. . . . The solution is a stunner.”

— The Boston Globe

“Sophie Hannah . . . delves successfully into moral quandaries: What does motherhood mean? What should a mother do when she thinks her child is in danger—especially if her own family doesn’t agree? . . . It’s Alice’s choices and their consequences that make Little Face so compelling.”

— The Washington Post

“Few authors play with reality and perception as skillfully as Hannah does. . . . Riveting reading.”

— Mystery Scene

“Echoes of Gaslight and Rebecca . . . a tautly claustrophobic spiral of a story delivered with self-belief.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“The author is a poet by trade and she brings a wealth of psychological and literary subtlety to bear in this impressive novel. Smart and disarmingly unnerving.”

— Daily Mail (London)

“A chilling thriller. I was left thinking about the book for days, and that’s usually a good thing.”

— The Guardian (London)

To access Penguin Readers Guides online, visit our Web sites at www.penguin.com or www.vpbookclub.com.

For Lisanne with love

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hodder Headline 2007

Published in the United States of America by Soho Press, Inc. 2008

Published in Penguin Books 2010

Copyright © Sophie Hannah, 2007 All rights reserved

eISBN : 978-1-101-46096-2

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From: NJ

To: Speak Out and Survive

Subject: This is not my story

Date: Mon, May 18, 2003 13:28:07 +0100

This is not my story. I’m not sure I want to share that, or my feelings, with strangers, on a website. It would seem phoney, somehow—phoney and attention-seeking. This is just something I want to say, and your website gives no address for submitting letters.

Did you ever stop to wonder, when you were thinking of a name for your organisation, whether speaking out is always the best thing to do? Once you tell somebody something, it makes it more real. Why take what you wish had never happened and make it happen again and again in the minds of everyone you know? I will never tell anybody my so-called story, which means there will be no justice, no punishment for those who deserve it. Sometimes that thought is pretty hard to take. Still, it’s a small price to pay for not having to spend the rest of my life being thought of as a victim.