How well do you really know your family? Emma Christie’s debut suspense novel, exploring family secrets, has been acquired by fiction publisher Jon Elek at Welbeck. Set in Edinburgh, The Silent Daughter is a compelling story of what happens when hidden truths are brought unexpectedly to light. UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) were bought from Caroline Hardman.

The book follows a father, Chris, as he tries to make contact his adult daughter after her mother has been seriously hurt in a mysterious running accident and lies in a coma. As he gets increasingly frustrated by Ruth’s lack of response and her brother Mikey’s evasiveness, police investigations into his wife’s fall force him to answer some challenging questions: Why wasn’t May on the race route when she fell? Was she running after someone, or running from them? And then a “few uncomfortable certainties” begin to emerge…

Elek said that Christie’s book “wrong-footed me at several places, and I just didn’t see the twist coming. It has one of those endings that make you want to tell someone immediately. Just at a point when you thought there wasn’t many places a writer could take you in psychological suspense, someone comes along and shows you there’s still an unmapped lake of darkness out there.”

Christie was born and raised in Scotland but has spent much of her adult life living in Spain and Latin America. She spent five years as a news journalist at Aberdeen and Inverness’ The Press and Journal, covering crime and political stories before becoming chief reporter. She now works as a tour guide and lecturer in history, culture and politics, with a US travel company.

Emma Christie was born and raised in Scotland but has spent much of her adult life living in Spain and Latin America. After studying literature and medieval history at Aberdeen University she spent five years as a news journalist with one of the UK’s top-selling regional daily newspapers, The Press and Journal, covering crime and political stories before reaching the position of chief reporter. She now works as a tour guide and lecturer in history, culture and politics with a US travel company, leading educational journeys across Spain, France, Portugal and Greece. She lives in Barcelona with her girlfriend, María Jose.