by Sue Grafton
Part of Kinsey Millhone, book 19
First published 2006
Violet Sullivan drives away from Serena Station in her new Chevrolet just after July 4th, 1953, and never returns. Her husband Foley had bought the car days earlier. Her young daughter Daisy grows up without answers. Thirty-five years pass before Daisy hires private investigator Kinsey Millhone to learn what happened to her mother. Millhone reluctantly takes the cold case, expecting to find that Violet simply started over somewhere else. The investigation reveals that many residents of the tight-knit southern California town knew Violet well. Some shared secrets with the missing woman that they still guard fiercely. As Millhone digs deeper into the past, the truth about Violet's disappearance threatens to destroy carefully constructed lies. In a small community like Serena Station, there are few places to run when old secrets surface and turn dangerous.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Serena Station
Period: 1953, 1980s
352 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley