First published 2019
Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey works at the Glenmore hotel in the Adirondack Mountains in 1906. She dreams of becoming a writer but sees only two paths ahead: poverty or marriage to a wealthy but boring local boy. Her mother has recently died, leaving Mattie adrift and desperate for escape from her small town life. When hotel guest Grace Brown asks Mattie to burn a bundle of secret letters, Mattie agrees to help. Then Grace's body is pulled from Big Moose Lake. Mattie realizes the letters she was meant to destroy might contain evidence about Grace's death. The letters could reveal whether Grace drowned accidentally or died by someone else's hand. Mattie must decide whether to burn the evidence as promised or expose the truth about what happened to Grace Brown.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family, secrets
Setting: Adirondack Mountains, Big Moose Lake, Glenmore Hotel
Period: 1906
416 pages · Paperback · Clarion Books
Content warnings: death