Swan, Karen: The Christmas Postcards

Natasha Stoneleigh's marriage is hanging by a thread when her husband Rob books a make-or-break family holiday to the Maldives. With their two year old daughter Mabel splashing in the surf and the problems back home feeling far away, paradise works its magic and by the week's end, they've decided on ?make'. The only fly in the ointment is when Mabel's beloved toy Moola is left behind somewhere on their stopover in Amsterdam.Back home in the Cotswolds and with Mabel unable to settle, Natasha posts a Missing plea online which is shared far and wide. It's an act of desperation, but to her amazement, she receives a bemused email. The good news is a man called Duffy found Moola and picked her up in Amsterdam as a lucky mascot. The bad news is he's travelling in a remote part of Asia, with no way of sending her back soon. However, when he hears of Mabel's distress, he offers, by way of compromise, to send over daily pictures showing Moola on her adventures.The plan works and Mabel is instantly soothed to see her beloved toy waving at her from exciting places each day. Natasha too gets drawn in to this stranger's world, so different from her own, and before long, she's looking forward to the daily communiqué as much as her child. Their penpal is witty, warm and wise and sometimes she feels he understands her better than the man sleeping beside her. But as the weeks pass and Duffy heads deeper into the mountains of Nepal, Natasha begins to notice a change in him. Then one day, he doesn't write. Nor the next . . .Is Moola lost to them? Is he? Because too late, Natasha begins to wonder why Duffy had needed a lucky mascot in the first place.