April 1999. The body of Alaska Sanders is found on the shore of a lake near the quiet town of Mount Pleasant, New Hampshire. The young woman's death rocks the small community, but the murder is quickly solved. Within days, a suspect is identified and soon convicted. Case closed. Or so it seemed. . . .

Eleven years later, Marcus Goldman, celebrity author and amateur sleuth, picks up a thread that will unravel not only the "open and shut" case of Alaska Sanders, but the very fabric of his best friend, -Sergeant Perry Gahalowood-'s life. Gahalowood, who led the original Alaska Sanders investigation, is hell-bent on finding the truth and setting the record straight. Teaming up with Marcus, he hopes to find redemption by solving the most intricate and trying case of his career.

Set both before and after the events of his phenomenal worldwide bestseller The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, Dicker's latest delivers the last word in slow-burn police procedurals. Clue by clue, witness by witness, question by question, his characters painstakingly piece together an unguessable puzzle that could only have been set by this acclaimed master of the plot twist. And as they uncover who Alaska Sanders truly was, other ghosts from the past emerge . . .

Translated from the French by Robert Bononno