R P Salmon

This stand-alone novel is the last story in the trilogy featuring Theo Kendrick. We catch up with the esteemed clinical psychologist in semi-retirement enjoying time with his extraordinary nine-year-old granddaughter, Efa. Frank Skelton is an embittered teenager kicking against a society that failed his mother during Covid and dumped him and his nine-year-old sister, Laura, into residential care. Left behind in the children's home when his sister is fostered, Frank's mental health worsens as he rages against the imposed separation. When Efa and Laura become best friends, Theo begins to take an interest in Laura's troubled teenage brother. A grudging respect develops between the hot-headed youth and the astute septuagenarian until a turn of events sends Frank into meltdown. Meanwhile, affairs take a much darker turn when Efa is abducted. Her parents, each with responsibilities in the judiciary, are faced with every parent's worst nightmare. Their values are sorely tested as they wrestle with the temptation to cave in to the kidnapper's demands or hold out and risk losing their only child. Their relationship begins to disintegrate under the strain and characters' lives become increasingly tangled in the desperate race against time to find Efa. Tomorrow's Dandelions shines a spotlight on strength, resilience and self-discovery as protagonists battle with the curved balls life throws at them. Earlier novels in the trilogy are Toy Soldier and Efa.

Growing up in the valleys of South Wales, Bryn Ellis's childhood is ravaged by the 1984 miners' strike. Thirty years on, he is a Detective Chief Inspector based at New Scotland Yard with a difficult case to solve. The ramifications force him to revisit the torments of his early life which still cast dark shadows.Efa is the sequel to Toy Soldier. Ten years on Theo Kendrick, is a celebrated professor about to retire and move to London to support Mia, the child he rescued from war-torn Iraq. Now a human rights QC, Mia is about to launch her Lotus Hub Foundation project, She is still battling demons from her past, including being abandoned on her wedding day by Bryn Ellis nearly seven years earlier. The love she once felt for him has long since soured to a bitter hostility.A happenchance of the investigation throws Bryn back into the path of Mia and the full force of her animosity. In a further twist, his estranged brother turns up after an absence of three decades. The bad blood between them has not abated, each still blaming the other for grievous deeds done to them in their past.Familiar characters from the prequel Toy Soldier weave in and out as the shocking events of the investigation unfold. The consequences re-shape the lives of the protagonists struggling to untangle knots of injustice and misconceptions that mirror their own.Efa is a story of love, loss, betrayal and self-discovery; a story about survival and ultimately of hope.

Beth Brannen, an austere, secretive woman, runs a successful business in a little-known part of Cumbria. A mysterious woman with an ugly facial scar who never ventures beyond the safe, local bubble she has created. She refuses to talk about her past except for her beloved son, Sidney. The arrival of an arrogant clinical psychologist, Theo Kendrick, threatens the sanctuary of Beth’s bubble. Trapped in their separate griefs, their interaction fizzes and crackles its way to a grudging respect. Convinced Beth is hiding a dark secret, Theo sets about untangling the mystery but what if he is only making things worse? It’s only a matter of time until the shocking events of thirty years before are laid bare... As the action unfolds in real time and through flashbacks against a backdrop spanning the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Gulf War and the Iraq War, Toy Soldier tells a story of love and loss, of survival and resilience that explores the nature of motherhood and poses some searching questions about the concept of choice.