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 familyโ mother, father, and brotherโhad 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 Cynthiaโs past still haunt her, and her obsession to find the answers threatens to destroy everything theyโve worked for. For Cynthia, there can be no closure until she finds out why her family disappearedโand 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, itโs Cynthia who spots the strange car cruising the neighborhood, hears the untraceable phone calls, and discovers the ominous โgifts.โ And as Cynthiaโs nerves begin to unravel, no oneโs innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time the first body is found, itโs clear that her past is more of a mystery than she ever imaginedโor 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 killerโs shocking identity, it will be too late even for goodbye.
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