First published 2026
Police Chief Callie Hauser thought she understood her small New Jersey town until she makes an arrest that brings back memories of an old disappearance. In 1994, sixteen-year-old Annabelle Riley watched her twin sister Sabrina slip away to meet a mysterious older lover in the Pine Barrens. Annabelle tried to discover the man's identity, but then both sisters vanished without explanation. Years later, Callie's investigation pulls her into the unsolved case that has haunted the community. The deeper she digs, the more the boundaries between past and present blur. The truth forces Callie to question her assumptions about justice, her own identity, and the place she has always considered home. Edgar Award winner Caitlin Mullen weaves a mystery that reveals how women's lives resist simple explanations, even to themselves.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, thriller, contemporary-romance
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: past-present-intertwine, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New Jersey, Pine Barrens
Period: 1994, Present Day
352 pages · Hardcover · Celadon Books