by A. J. Finn
First published 2024
Nicky Hunter receives an unexpected invitation from Sebastian Trapp, the reclusive mystery writer she has corresponded with for years. Trapp is dying and wants her help writing his memoir at his San Francisco mansion. She arrives to find his second wife Diana, troubled nephew Freddy, and devoted daughter Madeleine already in residence. Trapp dangles a tempting mystery before Nicky: twenty years ago on New Year's Eve 1999, his first wife and teenage son disappeared from separate locations and were never found. As Nicky digs into Sebastian's past, she becomes consumed with uncovering what really happened that night. Madeleine starts questioning whether her father knows more than he claims about the disappearances. When a body surfaces in the family koi pond, both women realize the decades-old mystery still has deadly consequences in the present.
Genres: suspense, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: San Francisco
Period: 1999, 2019
368 pages · ebook · William Morrow & Company