Hammer Blow

In the 1950s and 1960s two little girls, of a similar age, grow up in two separate children’s homes, 250 miles apart. Much later in life, now approaching seventy years old, one of them receives a very unexpected inheritance, one result of which is that she looks more closely at her family background. Meanwhile the other woman is receiving unpleasant, anonymous letters, accusing her mother and her of being murderers. Investigation into both the letters and the inheritance shows how intertwined the two women’s life stories are. Events long forgotten are revealed as Madeleine Porter uncovers a shocking history linking them and the terrible secret they unknowingly share.