The Missing Years of Anna Linden
Kathryn Peace
Type: Beta project
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery, romance
Word count: 95,000
Warnings: Graphic violence
New Zealand, 1923. Brain infection has left twenty-seven-year-old Anna with fifteen years of memory loss. Instead of the twelve-year-old she remembers being, she discovers she’s married to a man she detests, has a daughter and is suspected of murdering her best friend. As she attempts to unravel her past, her husband has her admitted to an asylum.
New Zealand, 1923. Set in the aftermath of WWI and the Spanish Flu, this is a story of social injustice and resilience set against a central mystery. Brain infection has left twenty-seven-year-old Anna Linden with fifteen years of memory loss. She regains consciousness to discover she’s married to a man she detests, has a daughter and is being blackmailed over the death of her best friend. As she attempts to understand her past, her present becomes perilous.
Her husband forces her into an asylum, and although detained only briefly, she unexpectedly finds friendship, understanding and love. Freed from the constraints of her marriage, she starts to rebuild her life, but will her shady history and the mystery surrounding her friend’s death cast too great a shadow?
Born in England, I now live in Dunedin, New Zealand, with my husband and our two cats. I’m a born-again writer, having worked for many years as a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist specialising in rehabilitation following brain injury. In “The Missing Years”, I’ve drawn on my experience of working with people who have suffered a form of brain infection that can affect memory in the way it has my heroine. However, the story that follows her initial reaction and revelations is entirely fiction. My hobbies are gardening, classical music, walking, and, of course, reading, especially historical fiction and nonfiction.
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