5 ratings • 4 reviews
5 ratings • 4 reviews
When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
An overwhelming amount of characters, perspectives, plots, timelines, and ideas, but that’s also what makes it good. It’s a crime mystery with depth.
The atmosphere and characters jump off the page in this one. Examining the class structure surrounding a summer camp for rich kids and the dysfunctional family seeds at the root of it, the storytelling puzzle is pretty layered. It is a slow burn, though, and crawls at the 50% mark. It picks up again in the back quarter and I found the ending satisfying. Investigator Judy is someone I wouldn’t mind meeting again.