Something Hidden
By Nick Blackstock
December 2009
Picnic Publications
Distributed By Trans-Atlantic Publications 
ISBN: 9780955861376
250 pages
$24.95 paper original
The original idea for the book was based on a real accident which occured in Gloucestershire in 1928. There have been numerous articles since then, together with TV and radio programmes. The novel opens in the South West of England, where a night train from Leeds to Plymouth crashes and catches fire. The gruesome business of recovering and identtifying the bodies then begins. Eventually, all are identified except for two - a boy and a girl aged about ten and eight. Police are certain they boarded the train in Birmingham, witnesses on the train reported seeing them and they even remember the school uniforms they were wearing - surely identification can only be a matter ot time? But the widely circulated descriptions bring no results and the schools contacted deny all knowledge.Police painstakingly investigate a huge range of possibilities and massive media publicity is generated to try and trace any relatives.
Such is the bizarre nature of the case that a host of theories are put forward and any thoughts - even semi-plausible - are investigated to no avail. The case begins to fade from public attention but one question will not go away. How, in twentieth century Britain, can two well-dressed, apparently well cared for children die so tragically without any relatives, guardians or friends coming forward? For those still pursuing the case, only one solution remains. It is that certain people do know the answer but, whoever they are and for whatever reason, they also have a vested interest in ensuring that the truth is never discovered. The story concludes during the horrors of the London Blitz in the Second World War. It provides a fictional solution to an enduring British mystery.
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