by Leslie Jones
First published 2019
Ruby comes home to the coastal town where she grew up. Her marriage has ended, and she wants to start over by the water she remembers from childhood. The tourist town welcomes her back, and Ruby begins building the new life she imagined. Then local women start vanishing without explanation. Ruby watches her community transform as fear takes hold. She questions the friends she grew up with and the new people she meets. Trust becomes impossible when anyone might be connected to the disappearances. Ruby must navigate relationships that have turned dangerous while trying to protect herself in a place that no longer feels safe. The town by the sea that promised her a fresh beginning now threatens everything she hoped to rebuild.
Genres: suspense, contemporary, mystery-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Coastal Town
Period: Contemporary
137 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness