A LibraryReads Top Pick

“Gothic and twisty! Don’t miss it.”
—Lisa Unger, author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six

“The narrative culminates in a heartbreaking finale that will haunt readers long after the final page is turned. Doar nails it on her first time out.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A layered exploration of family secrets, sibling misconceptions, and an unsolved murder in this chilling debut set in New York’s Dutchess County.

When Marlowe Fisher, an illustrator living in New York City, returns to her family’s bewitching Hudson Valley home for the holidays, she discovers a body in the woods—a murder that draws her back into the haunting case of her teenage best friend’s disappearance two decades earlier. What happened to Nora?

As police descend on the sprawling Fisher property, Marlowe is pulled into an investigation that threatens to unravel the town’s fragile loyalties and expose the shadowed legacy of a weekend home steeped in secrets. Marlowe must confront the fallibility of her own memory and the feeling that everyone—including her brothers—is hiding something if she’s to uncover the shocking truth about her lost friend. In this gripping debut, Julie Doar delivers a chilling mystery that explores the corrosive power of silence and the tension of family secrets.