48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister

Narrated by postal worker Georgina Fulmer, this exquisite novel of suspense from Oates (Babysitter) examines a crime and its consequences. On Apr. 11, 1991, when Georgina was 23, her beautiful, talented 30-year-old sister, Marguerite, disappeared from her family home in the small Upstate New York town of Aurora-on-Cayuga. Did she leave on her own accord? Was foul play involved? Is she still alive? Georgina teasingly reveals snippets of her sister’s life and the troubling interpretations given to these facts by police, relatives, friends, colleagues, town gossips, journalists, and even a psychic. In the process, she reveals her own complicated feelings for Marguerite. There are so many open questions surrounding Marguerite’s disappearance that the case never really grows cold. Twenty-two years pass with suspects emerging and receding. Some lives are broken by this association, because an open police investigation “means no mercy for anyone involved.” As Georgina says, “So many maybes! Yet (this is the tantalizing promise of clues!) one of these maybes however improbable and implausible is the Truth.” This elegant, captivating tale is un-put-downable. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Mar.)