First published 2023
Adelaide Henry flees California in 1915 with nothing but an enormous steamer trunk that never leaves her side. The trunk stays locked because when it opens, people vanish. Her secret already killed her parents, forcing her desperate escape to Montana Territory. There she joins other lone women claiming free government land, dragging her burden to every new settlement. The harsh landscape tests every homesteader, but Adelaide faces a different challenge. She fights to keep her past buried while the very thing she fears most might be what saves her. Other women surround her in this brutal country, forming unexpected bonds as they struggle to survive. Adelaide must choose between hiding forever or confronting what lies within that trunk. Her redemption or destruction waits in the wide Montana sky.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: hidden-identity, redemption, survival
Setting: California, Montana
Period: 1915
275 pages · Hardcover · One World
Content warnings: death, violence