“Everybody knows everything about you in this stupid town. And they know nothing.” What people in Madeline Martin’s rural New York town know about her is that she’s the daughter of the town’s longtime, beloved sheriff and she owns The Next Chapter, her dream bookstore. They also know, but rarely mention, that she survived a brutal attack ten years before, one that saw her friend Steph murdered and two other friends, sisters Ainsley and Sam, disappear. What they don’t know is that Maddie’s never recovered emotionally and longs to know what happened to her friends. There’s still no word on the missing teens, and it’s a few days before the anniversary of the attack, which also means Christmas is a few days off and the bookstore is humming. Superstar author Harley Granger chooses this as his moment to visit and start his research on whether the man doing time for the crime is guilty, what happened to Ainsley and Sam, and, most urgently, where a newly disappeared exotic dancer could be. All breathlessly documented on social media, of course. Fans of Unger will know her thrillers match top-notch writing with gripping stories; this one won’t disappoint in that regard and offers the bonus of a satisfying family story in Maddie and her father.
