Overview

In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family's summer house on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family - her father takes his own life, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine. For Justine, the lake house offers freedom and stability - a way to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the home she never had. But the long Minnesota winter is just beginning. The house is cold and dilapidated. The dark, silent lake is isolated and eerie. Her only neighbour is a strange old man who seems to know more about the summer of 1935 than he's telling. Soon Justine's troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily's disappearance, her absent mother reappears, and the man she left launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house haunted by the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.

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9780857308184

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Reviews

Haunting -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month * The delicacy of [Young's] writing elevates the drama and gives her two central characters depth and backbone...And the murder mystery that drives [THE LOST GIRLS] is as shocking as anything you're likely to read for a good long while * New York Times Book Review * Cleverly told through dual timelines of Lucy's journals and Justine's voice, this is sensitive and tense storytelling * Daily Mail * The Lost Girls is a powerful and bruising drama that astutely explores the reverberations of a shocking event through the inextricable layers of family. The story unwinds with a slow but insidious unease, building relentlessly to its shattering and heart-breaking conclusion -- Philippa East A story that is both eerie and incredibly sad... The Lost Girls is a poignant and engrossing thriller [and] a hugely impressive debut -- Carolyn Kirby, author of Times Historical Novel of the Year, When We Fall

'The delicacy of [Young's] writing elevates the drama and gives her two central characters depth and backbone... For all the beauty of Young's writing, her novel is a dark one... and the murder mystery that drives it is as shocking as anything you're likely to read for a good long while' - New York Times Book Review; 'Suspenseful and finely wrought, Young's tale is not easily forgotten' - Booklist; 'This book has it all - intrigue, complicated relationships, and a thrilling plotline - and it will appeal to fans of longspanning '90s stories like Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias' - Bustle; 'I was swept into The Lost Girls on the very first page... Heather Young weaves a captivating, multi-layered story that you won't want to put down' - Vanessa Diffenbaugh, internationally bestselling author of The Language of Flowers; 'Riveting... Told with finesse and an unflinching eye, The Lost Girls examines the bond between sisters, what it means to keep a promise, and how one family's secrets can stretch across generations' - Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl; 'A novel of quiet intensity that builds to a terrifying climax. The Lost Girls contains echoes of Kate Atkinson's Case Histories and is just as haunting' - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Author Information

Heather Young is the author of two novels. Her debut, The Lost Girls, won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award. The Distant Dead was named one of the Best Books of Summer 2020 by People Magazine, Parade, and CrimeReads. A former antitrust and intellectual property litigator, she traded the legal world for the literary one and earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2011. Heather lives in Mill Valley, California, where she writes, bikes, hikes, and reads books by other people that she wishes she'd written.

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