The dark side of a seemingly perfect Connecticut suburb comes to light when one woman’s long-buried secrets refuse to stay in the past, in this engrossing debut novel of psychological suspense. It’s an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue—and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear. *Starred Review* Nine-year-old Laura Loomis disappeared from the small town of Wintonbury, Connecticut, in 1974; she was last seen walking toward home. Chilling newspaper clippings about the missing girl frame Brown’s debut, which centers on imaginative 12-year-old Sadie Watkins, a Laura Loomis look-alike from the same town who is navigating the shifting landscape between childhood and adolescence. In chapters that alternate between the summer of 1979 and the early 2000s, when Sadie is grown with children of her own, long-buried secrets from the past begin to surface in the present. In 1979, Sadie and her friend Betty play a prank on a neighborhood girl named Francie, writing letters to her from an invented farmboy, who invites her to run away with him. The harmless joke is anything but, and Francie, like Laura before her, disappears. Alongside the story of the missing girls is one about mothers and daughters, and Sadie realizes much later how her flawed mother has shaped her. Brown is meticulously detailed in her description of a small New England town where neighbors host communal cookouts, and the only threat to safety is the woods lurking just beyond. Using precise language, she explores the hazy edges of memory, the gnawing desire to escape circumstance, and the pervasiveness of one neighborhood’s secrets. The result is a nerve-racking, psychologically complex novel sure to haunt readers—especially those with dark secrets of their own. --Ann Kelley “Brown explores the hazy edges of memory, the gnawing desire to escape circumstance, and the pervasiveness of one neighborhood’s secrets. The result is a nerve-racking, psychologically complex novel sure to haunt readers—especially those with dark secrets of their own." ― Booklist, starred review "A psychological suspense that grabs readers from the start...complex and haunting." ― Kirkus "Brown creates a story full of tension and suspense with an ending that is unexpected." ― Publishers Weekly “ The Longings of Wayward Girls is an enthralling account of how a daughter follows in her mother's footsteps...but not too closely. Brown tells a wonderfully suspenseful and eerie story as she goes back and forth between Sadie's childhood and her adult life, and the result is a novel full of mysteries, surprises, and the best kinds of psychological revelations. Once you've discovered this haunted world, you won't want to leave it." -- Margot Livesey ― New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "The Longings of Wayward Girls is haunting and delicate and beautiful, with the spark and charge of a psychological thriller. Karen Brown writes like an angel, but the shadows of past ghosts linger on every page. I could not put this compelling novel down." -- Jennifer Gilmore ― author of Something Red, a New York Times Notable Book of 2010 "Haunting, sexy, and evocative, The Longings of Wayward Girls features motherhood and daughterhood, marriage and adultery, and the simultaneous coziness and creepiness of New England suburban life, all wrapped up in a page-turning tale of suspense. A gripping debut novel." -- Cathi Hanauer ― New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Ruin " The Longings of Wayward Girls caught me by the throat from the first page. The dangling mystery and tale of girlhood friendships reeled me in, and I loved Brown's ability to move the reader fluidly back and forth through time. By the book's end, as the final truths are exhumed, I felt like I'd grown up with these characters. Brown has deftly crafted a first novel that will touch a chord inside anyone who has harbored a haunting secret, or been buffeted by the conflicting crosswinds of coming of age." -- Lee Woodruff ― New York Times bestselling author of Those We Love Most "In the time between playing with Barbies and puffing on stolen cigarettes, girl’s games can turn dangerous—and sometimes fall far over the line. In The Longings of Wayward Girls , the past returns to plague the present with a vengeance that can cost a woman her husband and children. Brown