Penguin Never Coming Back Weaver Tim

No goodbye • When Leonard Franks and his wife Ellie left London for their dream retirement in the seclusion of Dartmoor, everything seemed perfect. But then Leonard heads outside to fetch firewood from the back of the house - and never returns • No trace • Nine months later, Leonard's family turn to David Raker - a missing persons investigator with a gift for finding the lost. But nothing can prepare Raker for what he's about to uncover • Nowhere to hide • Because, at the heart of this disappearance lies a devastating secret. And by the time Raker realises what it is, and how deep the lies go, it's not just him in danger - it's everyone he cares about

One year ago, Alex Towne's body was found • One month ago, his mother saw him on the street • One week ago, David Raker agreed to look for him • Now he wishes he hadn't • Mary Towne's son, Alex, went missing six years ago. Five years later he finally turned up - as a corpse in a car wreck. Missing persons investigator David Raker doesn't want the work: it's clearly a sad but hopeless case of mistaken identity brought to him by a woman unable to let go of her son. But haunted by a loss of his own, Raker reluctantly agrees • Big mistake • For as he digs deeper, he discovers that Alex's life was not the innocent one his mother believed. Buried in his past are secrets that were never meant to be found - and dark, dangerous men willing to kill to protect them

Straight-A student Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. But six months on, she's never been found • Missing persons investigator David Raker knows what it's like to grieve. He knows the shadowy world of the lost, too. So when he's hired by Megan's parents to find out what happened to her, he recognises their pain - but knows that the darkest secrets can be buried deep • The more Raker digs, the more he realises everything is a lie. People close to Megan are dead. Others are too terrified to talk. And at the centre of it all is a place like no other • They call it The Dead Tracks • And there, Megan's secrets could cost Raker his life

I buried you • I mourned you • But now you're back • A woman walks into a police station • She has no phone and no ID, just a piece of paper that reads 'David Raker' • She says she's his wife • She looks just like her • She knows everything about him • But David buried his wife eight years ago • Is this really the woman he loved? Did he really say goodbye? • Or is he losing his mind? • Raker needs to find out the truth before it's too late, because he is now the prime suspect in her disappearance

Nine neighbours gather for a dinner party • But by the next morning, they had disappeared without a trace • No bodies. No evidence. No clues • Two and a half years later, it remains a mystery. Desperate for answers, the families of the missing turn to investigator David Raker • How did an entire village vanish overnight? • And is he looking for nine missing people, or nine dead bodies?

A young man wakes up bruised and beaten, with no memory of who he is or where he came from • The press immediately dub him 'The Lost Man' • Naming himself Richard Kite, he spends the next ten months desperately trying to find out who he is. But despite media appeals and the efforts of the police, no one knows him • Richard's last hope may be private investigator David Raker - a seasoned locator of missing people. But Raker has more questions than answers • Who is Richard Kite? • Why does no one know him? • And what links him to the body of a woman found beside a London railway line two years ago? • Could Richard be responsible for her death - or is he next?

One good deed takes her into another world • Sixteen-year-old Matilda is a poor Covent Garden flower girl until the day she saves the life of Tabitha, a minister's daughter. Welcomed into Tabitha's family, Matilda is offered the chance of a lifetime • She leaves behind London's slums and enters the darkest corners of New York. Traveling across the vast plains to the Wild West, she finds herself in San Francisco, a city in the grip of the gold rush • Streetwise and strong-willed, Matilda forges a new life for herself and Tabitha among pioneers like Captain James Russell - a man to whom she is deeply attracted • Yet a civil war will soon rip apart this new nation • Can Matilda and those she loves brave separation and carry on, never looking back?

I'm Never Coming Back is a collection of surreal, comic and mournful interweaving tales travelling across three continents. In each destination we zoom in on unusual lives and remarkable situations, each tale unknowingly impacting on the next • In Rye train station a woman impulsively buys the same ticket as the man in front of her. The accidental journey leads her to Berlin. A novel way to run away from home • At Heathrow Airport, a building perpetually busy with people coming and going, a traveller is visited by a memory that refuses to leave • A tray of Singapore rice noodles cooked up in Christchurch takes on a life of its own • Winchelsea. A lone letterbox in Britain's only desert is central to a friendship between a travelling chef and a deep-sea diver

Lynda drives to a secluded beauty spot on the Somerset coast • CCTV watches her arrive, but never sees her leave • She is never seen again • Her sister calls missing persons investigator David Raker. For him, the mystery of where she went is only the start. The real question is why a woman with no reason to run would choose to leave her entire life behind? • Missing and presumed dead, only Lynda knows the truth • Was it her decision? Or did someone make it for her?

He got on the train. He didn't get off. So where did he go? • On a normal London moening, Sam Wren gets onto a tue triain - and then never gets off again • No eyewitnesses. No trace of him on security cameras. Six months later, he's still missing • Out of options and desperate for answers, Sam's wife Julia hires David Raker to track him down. Raker has made a career out of finding the lost. He knows how they think. And, in missing person cases, the only certainty is that everyone has something to hide • But in this case the secrets go deeper than anyone imagined

The missing pieces in your past can be deadly . . . Will Rebekah find hers before it's too late? • Two missing women • Rebekah Murphy is stranded on an island closed for the winter. Her family doesn't know where she is. And now a killer is on her trail. She needs to survive long enough to make it back home - but what's waiting there could be even worse • Two pieces of the same puzzle • Detective Travis can't find Louise Mason. The case has no leads and is getting colder by the day. Then Travis gets an anonymous tip-off -but is this a clue or part of something more sinister? • What links these apparently unrelated cases? • Who is causing young women to disappear? • And when does missing mean murder?

'We never lose our inner freedom; the freedom to do what is right' • Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope • Then, in December 1990, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears