28007948From Goodreads: “A haunting novel from the author of The Weight of Blood about a young woman’s return to her childhood home—and her encounter with the memories and family secrets it holds. Arrowood is the most ornate and grand of the historical houses that line the Mississippi River in southern Iowa. But the house has a mystery it has never revealed: It’s where Arden Arrowood’s younger twin sisters vanished on her watch twenty years ago—never to be seen again. After the twins’ disappearance, Arden’s parents divorced and the Arrowoods left the big house that had been in their family for generations. And Arden’s own life has fallen apart: She can’t finish her master’s thesis, and a misguided love affair has ended badly. She has held on to the hope that her sisters are still alive, and it seems she can’t move forward until she finds them. When her father dies and she inherits Arrowood, Arden returns to her childhood home determined to discover what really happened to her sisters that traumatic summer.”

My Review

I really enjoyed this Gothic mystery set along the banks of the Mississippi in Iowa. Laura McHugh’s beautiful writing transported me there straight away as I became hooked from the first page. I liked Arden and understood her desire to go back to the past to recapture her life before her twin sisters disappeared. There were lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing all the way through. I definitely recommend this if you like atmospheric mysteries, stories about memory and trying to make sense of the past.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK, Cornerstone and the author for my digital copy.