The Good Ones

Everyone in Tyndall County remembers the summer Lauren Ballard disappeared without a trace. When her mother dies, Nicola relocates to her Virginia hometown to settle her mother''s estate. It is the place where the disappearance of her friend, Lauren Ballard, still haunts her sixteen years on. Driven by a need for closure, Nicola takes a job as a teacher at her old high school and starts to do her own investigation. Pretty soon she is falling back into relationships with old friends, and back into bad old habits too. As Nicola begins to unearth long-buried secrets in the small town, and reexamine her memories of that long hot summer, she draws closer to discovering what happened to Lauren all those years ago - and what she herself escaped from.

Vorwort
What really happened to Lauren Ballard? A page-turning mystery simmering with secrets and suspense, perfect for fans of The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave and Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz.

Autorentext
Polly Stewart grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she still lives. She has an MFA in fiction and a Ph.D. in British literature from Washington University in St. Louis. Her short fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices and Best American Mystery Stories, and her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, Poets & Writers and CrimeReads, among other publications.

Klappentext

'A compelling mystery . . . I read it in a single sitting' HAYLEY SCRIVENOR, author of No. 1 bestseller Dirt Town

'Gripping . . . an ending I never saw coming' ANA REYES, author of The House in the Pines

'A true page-turning mystery. I adored it' CHRIS WHITAKER, author of We Begin at the End
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On a hot August day, Lauren Ballard mysteriously vanished from her home, leaving signs of a violent struggle.

Sixteen years on, still haunted by her friend's disappearance, Nicola Bennett returns to her hometown. For Nicola, Tyndall County has remained frozen in time. Everywhere she turns she's reminded of Lauren. Yet startlingly, her former friends and neighbours have all moved on.

Nicola begins to trace over the events of that summer, hoping to discover a clue to Lauren's fate. Deep down she knows the answers are tucked in the hollows and valleys of this rural Virginia county.

But as secrets come to light and the truth begins to unravel, will Nicola finally break free of the past - or lose herself completely in the questions she can never answer?