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Helen Black
A Place of Safety
AVON
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2008
Copyright © Helen Black 2008
Helen Black asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook edition © 2008 ISBN: 9780007328864
Version: 2017-06-26
‘A fantastic first novel.’
Jane Elliott, author of The Little Prisoner and Sadie
‘A dark and gripping read that will have you on the edge of your seat…this terrific debut novel is full of intrigue and a real page-turner.’ Closer
For Mum
Contents
Copyright
Praise
Prologue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
By the Same Author
About the Publisher
There are 9.2 million refugees worldwide.
The UK offers a home to 3%.
Of those seeking a place of safety in the UK, a fifth
are unaccompanied children.
Things, as Luke Walker’s mother is fond of saying, are getting out of hand.
The voices of his friends jar his ears as they stumble through some song by Lily Allen, clapping out of time, urging her on. Tom whoops with glee like a small child at Christmas, saliva dribbling down his chin. Charlie digs Luke in the ribs and shouts something in his ear but the words are lost in a fit of giggles.
The girl is in the middle of their ramshackle circle, her laughter almost hysterical. She says something none of them understand and spins round and round so that her skirt flares up and the boys can see her knickers.
Tom