About This Book

In this compelling debut, Fleischmann uses remote locations and a barely remembered time as a frame for a story centered on obsession. In 1941, Elizabeth Pfautz still dreams of her identical twin sister, Jacqueline, who disappeared 20 years earlier from their hometown in Pennsylvania when the girls were 11 years old. Now Elizabeth endures a marriage gone sour in isolated Tanacross, Alaska, where her husband, John, teaches for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and she homeschools their precocious daughter, Margaret. Then one day a substitute pilot, Alfred Seidel, brings the mail, and Elizabeth's life changes. First she's obligated to let Seidel stay in her home's guest room, and then, the next day, he kills her close friend, Athabaskan Mack Sanford, presumably over a card game. When Elizabeth, furious, confronts Seidel in custody, he admits to being involved in taking Jacqueline and offers to reunite the sisters if Elizabeth meets several of his conditions. As the narrative toggles between the present of 1941-42 and the past, shortly before Jacqueline disappeared, Elizabeth is forced to make dreadful choices, leading to a pulse-pounding climax. Fleischmann proves to be an author to watch on the literary-thriller scene.--Michele Leber Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.