Vor 20 Jahren verschwand ihre Schwester. Naomi selbst hat kaum Erinnerungen an dieses Ereignis – und doch will die »Kinderfinderin« die Spur aufnehmen.
Die Suche führt sie direkt in die Dunkelheit von Portland in Oregon, wo mehr Kinder auf der Straße leben als im Rest des Landes. Und immer wieder findet man die Leichen junger Mädchen im Fluss …
Dort trifft Naomi auf Celia, ein zwölfjähriges Mädchen, das vor ihren Eltern geflohen ist. Der Vater missbrauchte sie, die Mutter ist suchtkrank. Ceilas einzige Hoffnung sind die Schmetterlinge. Sie sieht sie überall um sich herum – ihre schillernden Beschützer und Führer auf den trostlosen Straßen.
Poetisch, fesselnd und bittersüß. Rene Denfeld schickt Naomi, die Ermittlerin mit der unheimlichen Fähigkeit vermisste Kinder zu finden, ein weiteres Mal auf eine emotionale Suche.

Vor drei Jahren, als ihre Familie nach einem Weihnachtsbaum in den frostigen Wäldern von Oregon suchte, verschwand Madison Culver. Drei Jahre – und immer noch keine Spur von der damals Fünfjährigen.
Ist sie tot? Doch eine Leiche hat man bisher nicht finden können.
Madisons Eltern wenden sich in ihrer Verzweiflung an die »Kinderfinderin« Naomi, eine Privatermittlerin mit dem unheimlichen Talent, Vermisste aufzuspüren. Da sie in ihrer Kindheit selbst einmal verschleppt wurde, kann sie sich besonders gut in solche Fälle hineinversetzen.
Während Naomi nach und nach die schrecklichen Tatsachen im Fall Madison aufdeckt, durchdringen Scherben eines dunklen Traums ihre Erinnerung …
Ein atemberaubender, literarischer Pageturner, erzählt mit den wechselnden Stimmen von Naomi und einem außergewöhnlich fantasievollen Kind.

The Butterfly Girl is a riveting novel that ripples with truth, exploring the depths of love and sacrifice in the face of a past that cannot be left dead and buried.

A year ago, Naomi, the investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children, made a promise that she would not take another case until she finds the younger sister who has been missing for years. Naomi has no picture, not even a name. All she has is a vague memory of a strawberry field at night, black dirt under her bare feet as she ran for her life.

The search takes her to Portland, Oregon, where scores of homeless children wander the streets like ghosts, searching for money, food, and companionship. The sharp-eyed investigator soon discovers that young girls have been going missing for months, many later found in the dirty waters of the river. Though she does not want to get involved, Naomi is unable to resist the pull of children in need–and the fear she sees in the eyes of a twelve-year old girl named Celia. Running from an abusive stepfather and an addict mother, Celia has nothing but hope in the butterflies–her guides and guardians on the dangerous streets. She sees them all around her, tiny iridescent wisps of hope that soften the edges of this hard world and illuminate a cherished memory from her childhood–the Butterfly Museum, a place where everything is safe and nothing can hurt her.

As danger creeps closer, Naomi and Celia find echoes of themselves in one another, forcing them each to consider the question: Can you still be lost even when you’ve been found? But will they find the answer too late?

A haunting, richly atmospheric, and deeply suspenseful novel from the acclaimed author of The Enchanted about an investigator who must use her unique insights to find a missing little girl.

“Where are you, Madison Culver? Flying with the angels, a silver speck on a wing? Are you dreaming, buried under snow? Or–is it possible–you are still alive?”

Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. She would be eight-years-old now–if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as “the Child Finder,” Naomi is their last hope.

Naomi’s methodical search takes her deep into the icy, mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, and into her own fragmented past. She understands children like Madison because once upon a time, she was a lost girl, too.

As Naomi relentlessly pursues and slowly uncovers the truth behind Madison’s disappearance, shards of a dark dream pierce the defenses that have protected her, reminding her of a terrible loss she feels but cannot remember. If she finds Madison, will Naomi ultimately unlock the secrets of her own life?

Told in the alternating voices of Naomi and a deeply imaginative child, The Child Finder is a breathtaking, exquisitely rendered literary listen about redemption, the line between reality and memories and dreams, and the human capacity to survive.

A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.

“This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it, but I do.” The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners’ pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honesty and corruption–ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.

Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.