Saltwater Mansions: The woman who disappeared and other untold stories

(Hardback)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Margate is in the grip of a heatwave when David Whitehouse stumbles across the mysterious story of a local woman who lived on the ground floor of Saltwater Mansions, a block of flats not far from the sea. On paper, Caroline Lane was unremarkable. She paid her mortgage every month. She always paid her bills. But nobody had seen or heard from her for 13 years, and no one had ever come looking. She had disappeared completely.

David quickly becomes as fascinated by this missing woman as the residents of Saltwater Mansions, all of whom have their own theories to share, and their own unique stories to tell. As his obsession grows, David unearths vital clues that private detectives and amateur investigators alike have failed to spot. But the closer he gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that this mystery was never meant to be solved, and that some stories don't want to be told. What if this one was never about Caroline Lane at all

From acclaimed and award-winning author David Whitehouse, Saltwater Mansions is an astonishing work of creative non-fiction blending reportage and memoir to explore the extraordinary hidden lives of ordinary people, the impact of grief, and the dangerous allure of taking true crime stories into our own hands.

Reviews

Brilliant. A proper read-it-in-one-go book, opening up an advent calendar of lives behind the doors of a block of flats. Beautifully written, humane and soul-baring -- Adam Kay, author of THIS IS GOING TO HURT
I inhaled it in a sitting - what an exhilarating book. Brave, revealing and unexpected, this is a wise and original exploration of the extraordinary nature of ordinary lives and how they are interpreted by others -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of THE LAST ACT OF LOVE
A master storyteller and one of our greatest non-fiction writers -- Terri White
Magnificently told and devastatingly moving, Saltwater Mansions is a treasure trove of human truths - a bittersweet dive into the profundity, melancholy, and strange sweetness of being alive, bound by a totally original, utterly compelling true crime narrative -- Harriet Gibsone, author of IS THIS OK
A beautiful, humane, compelling book. What begins as a humble inquiry into a small-town missing person's case becomes a plaintive, intricately nested set of untold stories, taking in the denizens of Margate to Whitehouse's own family. Each quietly extraordinary person who's entangled in this narrative is illuminated with such vividness and compassion you can't help but recognise the fragments of your own experience in all of them. David Whitehouse has always been a brilliant writer of Britain's overlooked characters, and this is his finest work yet -- Benjamin Wood, author of THE YOUNG ACCOMPLICE
An utterly incredible book. The memoir of a seaside town, a portrait of an absence, and a hymn of grief. I am still thinking about it -- Dan Davies, author of IN PLAIN SIGHT: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile

Author Bio

David Whitehouse is the author of three acclaimed novels. His first, Bed, won the 2012 Betty Trask Prize 2012. His second, Mobile Library, won the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Prize. In 2022, his debut non-fiction book, About A Son, was shortlisted for The Gordon Burn Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction. His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, Esquire, The Times and many other publications, and he has also written extensively for the screen. He lives in Margate.