So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.Īnd yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. Increasingly, Lilydale seems less idyllic and more intimidating.Perfect town. Lourey deftly shows how Lilydale residents resist the changing times of the late 60s, which doesn’t sit well with Joan. Then there are those mysterious meetings that Deck attends to which she is not invited. She can’t even buy something without someone reporting back to Deck’s parents.

Lourey skilfully builds the terror as the townspeople constantly watch Joan’s every move. It’s only when John decided he would “allow” Joan to work that she gets a job on the local newspaper.īut she is constantly thwarted when she tries to cover her first major story: finding out if a stranger really is Paulie Aandeg, who disappeared 24 years earlier following his first day in kindergarten. Joan and Deck live on the same street as his parents and in the house in which he grew up that his folks still own.ĭeck’s father, John, is the mayor and, as head of the county draft board, helped his son avoid Vietnam. Joan perfectly fits into Deck’s family, but the closeness comes at a price. However, there’s something off in the picture-perfect village, she soon discovers. Secrets abound around every corner as pregnant journalist Joan Harken soon discovers when her fiancé Deck Schmidt convinces her to move from Minneapolis to his hometown of Lilydale, Minnesota.Ī bit apprehensive at first, Joan eventually makes the move after she was recently mugged. Singer Weeknd wows crowds at Super Bow with dancers faces wrapped in bandages Sabkhas inspire National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates at Venice In it, a small town family tightens its grip slowly but persuasively, building heightened suspense. Author Jess Lourey meshes together bits of “The Stepford Wives” and “Rosemary’s Baby” - without the supernatural elements - to bring readers a tightly coiled domestic thriller.

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