Forty years ago
It should have been the happiest night of her sister’s life. When she was crowned Miss Sunshine Sands.
But nothing was ever found except her pink satin sash that washed up on the shore.
Now
Journalist Zoe Kincade arrives in the rundown seaside town of Sunshine Sands to report on this year’s talent show. The motionless Ferris wheel blurs into the dark sea beyond and polystyrene chip trays bounce along the pavement.
She checks into the Forget-Me-Not hotel, a faded Edwardian terrace that has seen better days.
The last place her beautiful older sister Jane was seen alive.
Zoe has spent forty years trying to block out the pain. Any chance of a happy marriage and living in some kind of peace were shattered because of that night.
She was only a little girl when Jane disappeared. She just remembers how much she looked up to her big sister.
Now Zoe is determined to find out the truth.
And no amount of glitter and sparkle can hide the dark truth of that night.
Sally-Anne grew up in a small village just outside Sheffield. Her mum was a beautiful homemaker with numerous practical skills and talents, who kept the home going. Her dad on the other hand was not at all domestic, he was an avid reader of true crime books, lover of Carry On films, political scandals and wine. Sally-Anne takes after her dad.
Much to her parent’s disappointment, at 16 years old Sally-Anne left a promising job in the advertising department of the Derbyshire Times to pursue a performing arts course. This led to many jobs, few of which involved acting. She has tended bars, worked as a film and television extra and provided care in one of the last Victorian asylums in England.
Coming from a working-class background, her writing is inspired by those women who are constantly left on the side-lines and ignored. She takes the underdog and gives her the freedom to do what she wants (good or bad) and see where that takes her. With a diet of Hammer House and Tales of the Unexpected as a child, along with a love for the ridiculous, it is no surprise that her books have chilling themes with a hint of dark humour.
After living all over the UK and USA, she is currently residing back in the North of England and living alongside a menagerie of animals, including five pet pigs.
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My thoughts: Two things that are always a bit seedy, faded seaside towns and beauty competitions combine in this clever and dark read.
Decades after her older sister vanished after winning the Miss Sunshine Sands competition, journalist Zoe heads back to the tatty B&B they stayed in before to document the latest incarnation of the competition and look for evidence about her sister’s disappearance. What she finds is darker and more disturbing than she could have imagined.
Full of twists and creepy moments, with unreliable and untrustworthy people all around, both in the flashbacks and in Zoe’s present, this is a clever and compelling read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 
Thank you so much for being a part of the tour x
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