AFTER YOU VANISHED

A teenage girl searches for her missing sister with the help of the last person to see her alive in this debut mystery.

It has been almost one year since Teddy’s twin sister, Izzy, disappeared during a midnight swim across Bottomrock Lake. The police believe Izzy drowned, but Teddy feels there is more to the story. Bisexual Izzy was training to try out to swim in the Olympics, so the mile swim should have been nothing for her. Adding to Teddy’s suspicions are the mysterious text Izzy sent her just before she went missing and the fact that Izzy’s passport has also vanished. After spending the last year searching for leads, Teddy is close to giving up as she returns to her old summer job as a lifeguard at the lake. But when Toby Smith, Izzy’s friend from swim team who was with her that fateful night, shows up to work as a lifeguard too, she feels that this must be a sign to keep looking. Believing that Toby is hiding something and desperate for answers about the sister she thought she knew so well, Teddy decides to form a relationship with him that soon becomes its own mystery. The plot unfolds at a deliberate pace as themes of grief, family, identity, and guilt are explored; it’s less a whodunit than a character-driven account of Teddy’s journey and relationship with her sister. Main characters are coded White.

Thoughtful and compelling.