The missing marriage - Sarah May

A love story with missing persons.

Love, money, marriage and pseudocide on the north-east coast of England.

Childhood sweethearts, Bryan and Laura Deane have been seemingly happily married for just over fifteen years. Their friends and family believe that if the Deanes are happy, there is such a thing as true love. Only the Deanes aren't happy.

The tides of debt are rising, and the only remaining road to salvation is a life insurance pay off. But neither of them have any plans of making the ultimate sacrifice to get their hands on it.

So when Bryan Deane goes missing at sea - presumed dead - it looks as though the Deanes might just pull off the scam.

But there are two factors that Laura does not count on; Martha, their fourteen year old daughter who refuses to believe she will never see her father again, and Anna Faust, childhood friend and now a Detective Sergeant - yet another woman who is unable to accept the idea of spending the rest of her life without Bryan.

Sarah May is an intimate observer of society (AKA curtain-twitcher of the highest order). She is the author of four previous novels: The Rise and Fall of the Queen of Suburbia, The Nudist Colony, which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award; Spanish City and The Internationals. She lives in London with her theatre director husband and their two children.

Praise for The Rise and Fall of the Queen of Suburbia:

'May's shrewd sideways glance makes this a novel moving and menacing by turns' Observer

'Sarah May has a rare talent for melding the farcical with the tragic, and has produced a novel which - but for an ending worthy of Tom Sharpe - is a scathingly successful piece of social commentary' Daily Mail

'Sarah May has brought the obsessions, ambitions and class paranoia of Thatcher's Britain beautifully back to life. It's a visceral read, but this is one book you'll be happy to read in a rush' Daily Express

'Full of hilarious pop-culture detail, this is a dizzying celebration of the 80s.Laugh-out-loud' Eve Magazine

'Like Mike Leigh directing Desperate Housewives; a brilliantly 1980s suburban drama' Elle Magazine