Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from St Martins Press via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own
A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.
Synopsis:
Synopsis:
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
Review:
This southern gothic is both a thriller and a mystery, with a touch of family dysfunction thrown in for spice. Claire is at loose ends, so decides when her father calls to head back home, down South, to see to her mother. But when the family dysfunction (the loss of her sister) rears its head, she heads off for a drive and ends up where her sister was last seen at. Thru happenstance, she gets a job there and when she finds the owner's wife's journal, soon realizes things were not as they seemed when she was younger and there is a dark force at work on the land. Soon she is caught up between the world of the journal and investigating the farm and its inhabitants. While you can sense what is going to happen, the author still weaves a web that keeps you reading until the sordid truth comes out. The first book I've read from the author, I'll definitely be looking at her other books too!
About the Author:
STACY WILLINGHAM is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark, All the Dangerous Things, and Only If You're Lucky. Her debut, A Flicker in the Dark, was a 2022 finalist for the Book of the Month's Book of the Year Award, Goodreads Choice Best Debut award, Goodreads Choice Best Mystery & Thriller Award, and ITW's Best First Novel Award. She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and daughter and their Labradoodle, Mako.
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