Emily Barr is the author of nine novels, including the bestselling Backpack. She is also an occasional journalist.

The First Wife, published May 2011

Lily is adrift and penniless after the death of the grandparents who brought her up. She gradually makes a life for herself in Cornwall, and when she finds a cleaning job, she becomes preoccupied with the glamorous couple she never sees, but whose house she looks after every week.

When tragedy strikes, she suddenly finds herself getting close to dashing widower Harry. Yet she feels that things are not quite as they seem. Lily adores Harry, but cannot plan her future with him until she finds out more about his first wife. This quest takes her to Barcelona, where events take a course she could never have predicted.