Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1968, pregnant journalist Joan Harken, the narrator of this chilling mystery from Lourey (Unspeakable Things), is persuaded by her fiancé, Deck Schmidt, to move from Minneapolis to Lilydale, Minn., where Deck's father is the mayor and, as head of the county draft board, can get Deck a deferment to avoid military service in Vietnam. Deck's father also secures Joan a position on the town's newspaper, since he's a friend of the editor. Joan quickly discovers Lilydale is brimming with secrets. After a stranger appears in town claiming to be Paulie Aandeg, who as a boy 24 years earlier never returned home after his first day in kindergarten, Joan covers the story. She makes little headway with the locals she interviews, who seem to be united in preventing her from discovering what really happened to Paulie. Lourey ratchets up the suspense as Joan becomes aware of a sinister conspiracy that poses a threat to her and her unborn child. That Deck may have a hidden agenda adds to the tension. Fans of Rosemary's Baby will relish this. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
When pregnant reporter Joan Harken doesn't get a promotion and is mugged, her fiancé, Deck, suggests they move to his hometown of Lilydale, MN, where his father is on the local draft board and can help him avoid the Vietnam draft. Deck lets everyone assume they're married. While he settles in working for his father, Joan finds the gathering of the Mill Street neighbors to be uncomfortable and bizarre. The neighbors seem to watch every move, and know everything she does. Joan fears she's going nuts when even her college roommate doesn't believe her about how weird the town is. While investigating the story of a child who went missing two decades earlier, Joan uncovers the strange history of the cultlike Mothers and Fathers of Mill Street. She fears for her safety and that of her baby, an emotion that echoes throughout the book in moments when she shares her postpartum trauma. VERDICT Lourey returns readers to Lilydale, the setting of Unspeakable Things, in a tense novel that combines traces of The Stepford Wives with Rosemary's Baby. Although the plot hinges on the history of a missing child, Lourey ratchets up the fear in a novel that verges on horror.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Lourey returns to the Minnesota town of Lilydale, whose perfect exterior hides a seething mass of horror. After she's mugged, pregnant reporter Joan Harken agrees to move from Minneapolis to her fiance Deck Schmidt's hometown both for her own safety and to save Deck from the military draft that's claimed so many other men in 1968. Deck's parents and their friends on Mill Street welcome the couple with joy, installing them in Deck's childhood home. Accustomed to big-city living, Joan immediately feels smothered and uneasy with the attention she gets from the townspeople, who seem unusually delighted with a pregnancy she hadn't wanted to reveal yet. Desperate for a job, she gets one on the small local paper, which sends her out to do the usual puff pieces, and finds herself intrigued by a story about a little boy who vanished from school in 1944 and was never found--and the man who's just shown up in town claiming to be that boy. As she investigates, she feels constantly watched and reported on by the Mill Street gang and quickly learns she can trust no one. Her paranoia about the way she's treated and the things she's learning makes even Ursula, her college roommate and best friend, think she needs help. Realizing that the only way she may ever learn the truth about the town's strange past and disturbing present is by pretending to be docile, she's still outsmarted by the cultish group, which forces her to give birth at home. She awakens bloody and in pain and without her baby. In a desperate attempt to rescue her child, she uses every bit of remaining strength and wit to escape Lilydale. Based on a true story, this is a sinister, suspenseful thriller full of creeping horror. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
