How Quickly She Disappears

Set in 1941, Fleischmann’s uneven debut focuses on Elisabeth Pfautz, who lives in Tanacross, Alaska (pop. 85), and has struggled for years to come to grips with the disappearance of her twin sister, Jacqueline, who was abducted in 1921 at age 11 near their home in Lititz, Pa. Dealing with her husband, to whom she’s unhappily married, and their precocious 11-year-old daughter, occupies Elisabeth until the arrival of a stranger, Alfred Seidel, who proceeds to murder one of her friends. To Elisabeth’s shock, the incarcerated Seidel asks to talk to her after his arrest. Seidel tells her he knows who took Jacqueline and her current location, but Elisabeth must give him “three gifts” for the information. Elisabeth’s desire to find out Jacqueline’s abductor’s identity and where she might be keeps the tension high, but main characters who don’t behave in realistic ways and the distracting usage of second-person point of view for the flashbacks will put off many readers. A disappointing ending caps a novel that works better as an evocation of a certain time and place than a mystery. Agent: Michelle Brower, Aevitas Creative. (Jan.)