Unsafe Haven

Sisteen-year-old Addy is a runaway, forced to have her baby in a New York subway toilet. Terrified and confused, she decides to thrust the baby into the arms of a woman passing by. She then disappears into the crowds, trying to get to the man she thinks she can trust. In flight and fearing for her life, she needs to know who she can call a friend.

Elizabeth has just been jilted at the altar and reluctantly returns to her parents’ home. She takes with her the story of not only her wedding heartbreak, but news of a newborn baby, forced into her arms by a young girl. From that moment her life, already in turmoil, becomes a maelstrom of danger, doubt, anxiety and confusion.

Through one of life’s strange coincidences, Addy finds herself on a train with Elizabeth, and decides to find out what happened to her baby. She follows her to her up-market home and before long, bewilderingly, finds herself introduced to Elizabeth’s family. Fearing discovery and the long arm of the law, she runs from them, only to find herself in the company of a crowd of teenagers bent on escaping the rules of their own parents. One of them is the stepdaughter of a cop, whose relationship with him is volatile. Her recently widowed father has come late to parenthood, and a rebellious teen is not in the plan. He is heavy handed with rules and expectation, and Caroline hangs with a bad crowd in reaction. She meets Addy and, recognising a fellow sufferer, becomes close to the troubled runaway.

However, no matter how hard they party, they can’t escape the attention of those who are after Addy and her baby. A vicious net is circling them and drawing into a strangling noose.

Slowly and carefully, Lucy Burdette draws the characters together – the girl from the streets and her new friends, the bad guys who are after a lot of money and who have the answers about the baby’s father, the police chasing both errant teenagers and runaways whilst on the trail of something much bigger, and the rich girl with the broken heart who just might be the bravest of them all. The story comes to a climax with a whoosh at the end of an action infused, revelatory, few chapters.