Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Helen Grant's first teen novel The Vanishing of Katharina Linden follows a misfit teenager as she attempts to unravel the mystery of several strange disappearances in the small town of Bad Munstereifel. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden bridges the world of the traditional Grimm fairytale with the darker world of Angela Carter's adult fairytales.

On the day Katharina Linden disappears, Pia is the last person to see her. Terror is spreading through the town. How could a ten-year-old girl vanish in a place where everybody knows everybody else?

Pia is determined to find out what happened to Katharina.

But then the next girl disappears. . .

'For something so chilling, it is terrific entertainment' Sunday Times

'Grant's splendid debut...is a feast of treats and creeps. Wonderful' Guardian

'A strange, haunting modern fairy tale' John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things

The setting of the small German town of Bad Munstereifel, in Helen Grant's debut novel The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, is based on her own experience of emigrating there from England as a child. Her other darkly thrilling young adult novels, The Glass Demon and Wish Me Dead, are also available from Penguin.

This book was recognised in the Teen category by the Booktrust Book Award. The Book Trust Best Book Awards with Amazon Kindle, which took place in 2014, aimed to unearth the very best childrens books the UK has to offer, and to honour authors and illustrators who continue Britains proud heritage of storytelling. It was recognised by the Carnegie Award. The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by childrens librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.

There are 352 pages in this book. This book was published 2009 by Penguin Books Ltd .

Helen Grant was born in London, and read Classics at St Hugh's College, Oxford. In 2001 she and her family moved to Bad Munstereifel in Germany, and it was exploring the legends of this beautiful town that inspired her to write her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. She now lives in Brussels with her husband, her two children and a small German cat.