Dr. Lorne Thorpe, a well-known pediatrician, is on a rare outing with his daughter Shawn when she is abducted. Although Shawn is eventually returned, seemingly unharmed but refusing to talk about what has happened, it seems that she is not the only child who has gone missing from their Troutstream neighbourhood. Detective Beldon has been put on the case, but Dr. Thorpe's increasingly erratic behaviour is hindering his investigation. And it's imperative to solve the mystery before more children disappear.

Gerald Lynch was born in Ireland, where he frequently visits, and grew up in Canada. Omphalos is his sixth book of fiction. In 2015 Signature Editions published Missing Children, his fifth, the novel that introduced Detective Kevin Beldon. These novels were preceded by Troutstream, Exotic Dancers, and two books of short stories, Kisbey and One’s Company. A Professor mainly of Canadian literature at the University of Ottawa (occasionally offering a seminar in contemporary Irish fiction), earlier this year Gerald published the co-edited Alice Munro's Miraculous Art: Critical Essays. He has edited a number of other books and published many short stories, essays, and reviews, and had his work translated into a number of languages. He has also authored two books of non-fiction, Stephen Leacock: Humour and Humanity and The One and the Many: Canadian Short Story Cycles. He has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the gold award for short fiction in Canada’s National Magazine Awards.

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