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Summary

Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel

This “beautifully written, thoughtful page-turner” (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists) set in Atlantic City blends noir suspense, a missing persons mystery, and female friendship into a haunting, literary page-turner, as two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer when mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.

Summer has come to Atlantic City, but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does lie hidden in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel. Only one person knows they’re there.

Meanwhile, Clara, a struggling boardwalk psychic, gives tarot readings to make ends meet—until she begins experiencing disturbing visions that feel all too real. As reports of missing women spread through town, Clara suspects her clairvoyance may be tied to the growing danger. When she meets Lily, a former Soho art gallery assistant now working at a nearly abandoned casino spa while grappling with personal loss, the two form an uneasy bond. Together, they begin to uncover a pattern—but getting too close to the truth may put them directly in harm’s way.

This “heartbreaking…riveting thriller” (Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Tinkers) explores the intersection of womanhood, power, violence, and survival, as two women confront buried truths and risk everything to stop a pattern of disappearance before it claims another victim.