First published 2022
Margot Davies was six years old when January Jacobs disappeared from the house next door in Wakarusa, Indiana. Twenty years later, Margot has built a career as a big-city journalist, but she returns home to care for her uncle who has early-onset dementia. The small town feels frozen in time, still marked by January's unsolved murder. Then five-year-old Natalie Clark vanishes from a nearby town under circumstances that mirror January's case. Margot decides to investigate both disappearances, convinced they are connected. The police resist her questions. Natalie's family won't talk. The townspeople close ranks against her inquiries. As Margot digs deeper, she encounters obstacles at every turn. January's case grows colder even as Natalie's trail becomes more urgent. Margot must confront the possibility that January's killer still walks free in her hometown and may have struck again.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigation, return-to-hometown, unsolved-crime
Setting: Indiana, Wakarusa
Period: 20 years later
312 pages · Hardcover · Bantam
Content warnings: death