Pre-release: Expected April 15, 2025
0 of 1 copy available
On a blistering summer day in 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes without a trace from Coram House, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Some say a nun drowned him, others say he ran away. Or maybe he never existed. Fifty years later, his disappearance is still unsolved.
Struggling true crime writer Alex Kelley needs a fresh start. When she's asked to ghostwrite a book about the orphanage—and the abuses that occurred there—she packs up her belongings and moves to wintry Burlington, Vermont.
As Alex tries to untangle the conflicting stories surrounding Tommy's disappearance, her investigation takes a chilling turn when she discovers a woman's body in the lake. Alex is convinced the death is connected to Coram House's dark past, even if local police officer Russell Parker thinks she's just desperate for a career-saving story. As the body count rises, Alex must prove that the key to finding the killer lies in Tommy's murder, or risk becoming the next victim.
Drawing inspiration from the real-life stories of St. Joseph's Orphanage, Coram House "reckons with both the long aftermath of violence and the hazards of writing true crime. It is an eerie, suspenseful mystery, sure to find readers among fans of Tana French" (Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy).
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 15, 2025 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781668057025
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781668057025
- File size: 5016 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 1, 2025
DEBUT Struggling true-crime writer and recent widow Alex Kelley on assignment in a small Vermont town in the dead of winter to research and ghostwrite a book about the unsolved mysteries at an abandoned orphanage. The main case is the 1968 disappearance of nine-year-old Tommy, who is said to have run away, but conflicting stories from staff and children who lived there at the time suggest a nun might have drowned him. As Alex begins meeting key players in the orphanage's story, she discovers a woman's body in the lake, and it becomes clear more that lives might be at stake. Seybolt, who drew inspiration from the real-life St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, intersperses the narrative of Alex's investigation with transcripts of witness testimony from orphans in the facility. She delivers an intriguing plot with plenty of twists and turns, but unfortunately none of the characters, including Alex, is very sympathetic, and it is hard to get invested in the story when none of the characters has a clear tie to the missing boy. VERDICT Seybolt's first effort is a solid mystery that fans of atmospheric thrillers may enjoy. Recommended mainly for larger public library collections.--Carrie Voliva
Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from March 1, 2025
Seybolt blends true crime and fiction in this absorbing debut. The actual crimes, chronicled in Christine Kenneally's The Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice (2023), involved Catholic nuns and priests neglecting, abusing, and even murdering children under their care at an orphanage in Vermont. This new treatment builds on the revelations, adding the fictional element of a young woman author investigating the decades-old crimes and encountering fresh murder and peril for herself. Alex Kelley, a once-successful writer derailed by her husband's death, is attempting a comeback by ghostwriting a book about deaths at a Burlington, Vermont, orphanage called Coram House decades ago. Seybolt skillfully blends points of view about maltreatment from fictive victims with 1968 court testimony, along with Alex's quest to investigate despite all the obstacles that abuse-deniers, who include townspeople and former orphans themselves, throw in her way. And then Alex stumbles across the newly murdered body of one of the old nuns on a running path. Part Gothic novel (with creepy Coram House playing a role) and part investigative reporting procedural, this will both disturb and fascinate readers.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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