First published 1997
In a tight-knit community where everyone knows their neighbors' secrets, three young girls vanish without explanation. The disappearances shatter the town's sense of safety and expose the fragile bonds holding people together. As days pass with no answers, residents turn on each other with mounting desperation. Long-buried grudges surface while whispered accusations spread from house to house. Friends become suspects and neighbors eye each other with growing distrust. The search for the missing girls becomes secondary to the community's descent into collective hysteria. Fear transforms ordinary people into something unrecognizable as they grasp for someone to blame. The town discovers that the real danger may not be some external threat, but the poison that emerges when civility breaks down and people reveal who they truly are beneath their careful facades.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
388 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt & Co
Content warnings: child-death