Shadow Child
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Nine-year-old Paul wakes to find his mother standing at his bedroom door. 'I'll just be a minute,' she says. And disappears. He fights against a future decided by others, certain of only one thing - his mother's love. Why did she leave? Where did she go? He never stops searching. Not as a child. Not as a man. 

Finally he has the answers. But the past casts a long shadow, ensnaring him in a relentless search for the truth - however deadly the secret it holds. 

Set against the dramatic backdrop of North Devon and the island of Lundy, Shadow Child draws the reader into a world of loss and longing; a world with a deadly secret at its heart.
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​"What a great read. I really enjoyed it." Sue Waterfield. Lundy. 
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​Prologue
Paul gazed at the identically dressed women filtering through the door. He stared at each face in turn, searching for the look, the mannerism, the feature that would unlock the past. He remembered deep brown eyes, tumbling hair, a raucous laugh and slender fingers… leaving their trace. He shivered. Sometimes his mind played tricks on him. Scroll down for more.
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​ISBN   978-0-9568709-4-0
Paperback        £7.99
Kindle                £2.99:
Reader Reviews

"Fantastic book, one you can't put down once you've started. A very gripping story very well portrayed."  5* Amazon Review

"Pamela Vass evokes a good sense of time and place in this dark look at the effects of abandonment. It moves slowly but you are compelled to keep turning the page. I get a strong sense that the author is very familiar with the workings of Social Services and takes us behind the scenes as a family is faced with child abuse, imprisonment and foster care and what might happen in adulthood if a child had to encounter any of these."  4* Amazon Review

"I think [Shadow Child] is fantastic. You have such a gift for touching people's emotions.  My 15 year old granddaughter ...  couldn't put it down."      D Calvert 
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"A very emotive & intriguing subject ... Your vast knowledge and experience of the subject really shines through and it is so well written." A Levick 

​"Excellent delivery and enjoyed reading this book, thank you."  5* Amazon review.

​"I read Shadow Child a little while ago. It was amazing... have passed it on to my sister who is also enjoying it ... thank you so much." Jak Britt

​"Shadow Child is a realistic, deeply moving and lovingly restorative book. It brings hope in a world of pain and despair. Pamela Vass needs to write more. She has much to give."  Alison Swyh 

"The further I read through the book, the more I wanted to keep on reading. The time and place are so well set, and as a reader who knows the Northern Devon coast well, I could visualise most of the locations. The plot is intriguing and keeps you guessing until the end. Looking forward to the next book!"    4* Amazon Review

"I could not put your book down, I have really enjoyed reading it; a really great book."  J Percival  

Prologue
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Paul gazed at the identically dressed women filtering through the door. He stared at each face in turn, searching for the look, the mannerism, the feature that would unlock the past. He remembered deep brown eyes, tumbling hair, a raucous laugh and slender fingers… leaving their trace. He shivered. Sometimes his mind played tricks on him. 
  There were no physical characteristics to link him with any of them, not that he could see. Carol, the family liaison officer, gestured towards a slight figure with closely cropped hair, eyes cast down, walking towards them. Carol nodded. ‘Hi, Sonya. This is Paul.’ 
  The woman lifted her head.  ‘You’re taller than I thought.’
  Paul removed his jacket and hung it over the back of the chair, tweaking the folds until it hung freely - anything to fill the space created by sixteen years of not knowing. Finally, he snatched a glance at the woman sitting opposite him - his mother. Can’t believe it’s you,’ he said. ‘I’d have come… years ago. But they didn’t tell me. The bastards all knew but no-one told me!’
  She shifted in her chair, her eyes flitting from one side of the room to the other. ‘What good would it have done?’ 
  'Good? I’d have told them it wasn’t you, couldn’t have been you…’
  ‘I’m not having this conversation.’ She half rose. 
  ‘Paul knows that.’ Carol sent him a warning glance. ‘You agreed to fill in the gaps. He agreed to stick to that. Paul?’  
  He shrugged. ‘Questions have been in here so long…’ he tapped his forehead. 
  Her face gave nothing away. ‘So what do you want to know?’ 
  The words welled up. ‘What was it like? What was I like? I remember a caravan. Is that where we lived?’
  'For a bit.’
  ‘What did we do? What sort of a kid was I?’
  'Christ, I don’t know. It was years ago!’
  'I don’t think Paul’s after anything specific, Sonya,’ Carol mediated. ‘Just something to help him fill in the gaps.’
  She rubbed at an imaginary mark on the back of her hand. ‘You used to go off round the site. You was always running off.’
  'Why? I loved being with you. We were good, weren’t we?’ Silence. ‘I remember we used to go to town.’ 
  Sonya picked at a chipped fingernail. He let the silence hang. 'Yea, we used to go to town,’ she said.
  ‘All of us?’
  'Mostly.’
  'But sometimes just you and me, yeah?’ 
  ‘Maybe, when you needed something, like trainers. You was always getting through trainers.’ 
  ‘What did we eat? What was my favourite?’
  She pressed her fingers against her forehead. ‘I don’t know… fish and chips. Burger from the van.’  
  He’d tried, really tried. But he had to know. ‘Why? Why did you say it was you?’
  She looked at him now, for a fraction of a second, before pushing her chair back. ‘Just a minute.’
  'You’re innocent… I’ll prove it,’ Paul called, fighting the impulse to run after her, to wait by the door, to make sure this minute didn’t last another lifetime.