You can never go wrong with a Sally Hepworth book and I’ve read most of them now. Darling Girls is no exception.

Three foster sisters,  Norah, Jessica and Alicia have come from diverse traumatic backgrounds to meet in a new foster home run by Miss Fairchild who shows the outside world a different persona to the one behind closed doors.

Years later, Miss Fairchild’s old house is demolished to make way for a new building and human bones are discovered under the house. Police call on the three women to help them with their investigation and the three who have remained close into their adulthood, reluctantly go back to Port Agatha where the house was and back in time to their ugly childhood.

Each of the sisters, has their own difficulties in adulthood and the narrative takes us into each of their points of view with a shock twist at the end.

Hepworth tackles the world of foster carers, vulnerability of children as well as mental health from trauma. At times I found it quite confronting but Hepworth gently leads the reader out of the tension, providing relief in all the right places. It’s also a novel about love and friendship.

The chapters are short and it’s an enjoyable and easy read.