The house was deathly quiet. That was the first sign that
something was terribly wrong. Fourteen-year-old Cynthia
Bigge woke that morning to find herself alone. Her family—
mother, father, and brother—had vanished without a word,
without a note, without a trace. Twenty-five years later,
Cynthia is still looking for answers. Now she is about to
learn the devastating truth.
From critically acclaimed author Linwood Barclay comes a
new suspense thriller that strikes to the core of our most
primal fear. What if you woke one day to find your entire
life had changed? If everyone you loved had disappeared
overnight without so much as a chance to ask why?
Cynthia and Terry Archer still live in Milford,
Connecticut, not far from the old Bigge house on Hickory
Street. With a solid marriage and a young daughter, the
Archers seem on track for a successful future. But the
questions raised by Cynthia’s past still haunt her, and her
obsession to find the answers threatens to destroy
everything they’ve worked for. For Cynthia, there can be no
closure until she finds out why her family disappeared—and
how they could have left her behind.
Terry thinks the segment on the popular TV crime-stopper
program Deadline is a mistake. But his wife hopes that
someone watching will have a lead to her missing family.
Sure enough, it’s Cynthia who spots the strange car
cruising the neighborhood, hears the untraceable phone
calls, and discovers the ominous “gifts.” And as Cynthia’s
nerves begin to unravel, no one’s innocence is guaranteed,
not even her own. By the time the first body is found, it’s
clear that her past is more of a mystery than she ever
imagined—or may ever survive.
Someone has returned to this Connecticut town to finish
what was started twenty-five years ago. And by the time
Terry and Cynthia discover the killer’s shocking identity,
it will be too late even for goodbye.