by Lori Roy
First published 2014
Grace, Julia, and Malina live on Alder Avenue in a Detroit neighborhood losing its shine in 1958. These three women have learned to lean on each other as their city changes around them. Their careful balance breaks when Elizabeth vanishes without warning. Elizabeth moves through the world like a child despite her years, making her disappearance feel especially urgent. The women know a black woman died recently at the factory where their husbands earn their wages. This murder weighs on their minds as they wonder what happened to Elizabeth. Each woman carries secrets that tie her to the others in ways she would rather forget. When a sound cuts through the air that none of them can mistake, these hidden truths threaten to surface. The search for Elizabeth forces Grace, Julia, and Malina to confront not only what they fear most about their neighborhood but what they have kept buried about themselves.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, secrets
Setting: Alder Avenue, Detroit
Period: 1958
338 pages · Paperback · Plume by the Penguin Group
Content warnings: racism