The Number 1

Alice Dundas thought she saw her mother today. But her mother disappeared, without trace, 14 years ago. So, in December 2011, when she catches sight of someone, who may be her, in the window of a café in the Leith area of Edinburgh, she thinks this may be the end of the nightmare. But it’s not going to be plain sailing. Factors from the past keep conspiring to hinder the search, and Alice despairs of ever catching up with her again. She enlists the aid of a shadowy Polish man in her search, a man who had been in the café at the same time. Within a short space of time, she’s entered an alien experience of intrigue and secrecy. It’s all a world away from her safe, comfortable life in the Edinburgh suburb of Corstophine; and the dull, predictable life with her long-term boyfriend Fergus. But Alice needs to find her. As her American friends say; she needs to get closure. But as the hunt goes on, she finds herself being drawn, more and more, into a developing friendship with the enigmatic, down at heel Marcin Dekka from Poland