Leah Stevens has to leave Boston and wants to start a new life as a teacher somewhere in Pennsylvania. Together with Emmy Grey, who already had been her roommate after college, the two women move to the small town which makes an idyllic impression. Yet, this idyll does not last long, soon after their arrival a girl is assaulted and Leah finds herself in the middle of the investigation around one of her colleagues. When Emmy does not show up for several days, she is just a bit concerned, but when the police find out that there is no person of the name Emmy Grey and when Leah realises that her friend did not leave any trace, she gets more and more scared.

I was really looking forward to reading this novel, but actually I am a bit disappointed. First of all, I could never really bond with the protagonist. Neither did I find Leah especially sympathetic nor did her behaviour make any sense to me. Had we known more about her, this might have been different, but equipping her with y mysterious past, too, did not really help to like her, because as a reader you always suspect her of false play and not of being the pitiable victim. For me, it was hard to believe that a clever investigative journalist can turn into a shallow, trustful teacher who only believes in the best of people. Moving in with somebody without knowing anything about that person is rather unlikely with such a past.

The plot itself had some suspense to offer, there were also some unexpected twists and turns, but here too, a lot was just too flat and unimaginative to convince me. The affair between Leah and Kyle, for example, who did not see it coming? Police rummaging the house just after a mysterious box with relevant information has been found hidden in the basement and secured from their eyes. These are mere props you can find in any second rate mystery novel.

All in all, it was ok, the knots were undone in the end.