You Must Remember This

It’s Christmas 2014 in this initially slow moving but ultimately satisfying gothic thriller from Rosenfield (No One Will Miss Her). The dysfunctional Caravasios clan has gathered at the Whispers, the childhood home in Bar Harbor, Maine, of 85-year-old Miriam Caravasios, who has dementia and is in a nearby assisted living facility. The house, built by Miriam’s father, who made his fortune in the 1920s selling bootleg liquor to the Mafia, is a veritable labyrinth of secret passages and hidden chambers. At 19, Miriam married the dashing Theodore Caravasios, who died in a boating accident a few years later. Miriam now returns to the Whispers in the company of her private nurse, Adam, for what turns out to be her final meeting with her three adult children and her devoted 26-year-old granddaughter, Delphine Lockwood. Hopes of inheriting Miriam’s wealth keep her children bickering. When Miriam dies of apparently natural causes, Delphine wonders whether it might be murder. A subtle shiver of menace runs throughout the narrative, told in part from the point of view of Miriam at significant points in her life. This thoughtful look at the nature of memories will resonate with many readers. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, YRG Partners. (Jan.)