A newlywed couple each with their own secrets. An abandoned lodge with a horrific decades-old mystery. And a small mountain town where everyone believes they know their neighbors…except they don’t.

For Raquel and Theo Collins, it appeared to be love at first sight. Raquel, a renowned interior designer, and Theo, a brash financial wizard met and married in a matter of months, only to confront a terrible tragedy. Now, unbearably aware of the distance between them, they’ve come to a remote town in New Hampshire to begin anew.

Perched on a ledge with stunning views, the Dixon’s family lodge was once a crown jewel of the mountains. Until late one August night, when both parents and their four children vanished, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints, and a mystery that has endured for thirty years. Now, its latest occupants, the Collinses, are arriving, and the former grand lodge is once more stirring to life.

For Amanda Grady, following in her father’s footsteps as the recently appointed Shereford police chief, it’s good to see a fresh start for the derelict Dixon place. However, not everyone is happy about a new family in the old home and its hidden past may have returned with a vengeance.

When a stray dog leads to the discovery of a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust, and how to survive. Because in the tiny village of Shereford the time has come. The local residents, the new neighbors, and the fledgling police chief must work together to unravel the terrifying events that happened one night thirty years ago, or…

You’ll be sorry.

This was my first Lisa Gardner book, even though I’d heard nothing but rave reviews about her earlier work over the years. I think I just picked the wrong entry point, because . . . Oof! This one didn’t land for me at all.

Raquel and Theo Collins fell in love, married within months, and then got hit with a tragedy that carved a massive gap between them. Looking for a fresh start, they relocate to a remote New Hampshire town and move into an old family lodge with a dark history. Decades earlier, the entire family who once lived there vanished overnight, leaving behind nothing but a trail of bloody footprints. It’s a mystery nobody’s ever solved. Amanda, the town’s newly appointed police chief following in her father’s footsteps, is relieved to see the old lodge finally getting new life again, but not everyone in town is thrilled about the Collins family moving in. When a stray dog uncovers a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo are forced to figure out who they can actually trust while the whole town gets pulled into finally unraveling what happened that night three decades ago.

I spent a good chunk of this book genuinely confused, and not just regarding who was who, but also the entire tone. It just felt uneven. The bumbling cop characters and the nepo baby detective storyline felt like they’d wandered in from a completely different book. The lighter, and occasional borderline almost comedic tone clashed hard against the darker mystery at the center of everything. Pacing wise, this one struggled to hold my attention throughout, mostly because of the tonal whiplash. It just made it hard to stay fully invested.

There were also very few surprises along the way for me, and by the time the actual reveal rolled around, I’d already checked out enough that I genuinely didn’t care who killed the family or why. Even setting my own disengagement aside, the reveal itself didn’t fully make sense to me when I sat with it afterward. I’m honestly not sure how much of that confusion was the book’s fault versus me having tuned out well before the ending, but either way, the payoff just wasn’t there for me.

So, yeah, this one just wasn’t for me. If you’re new to Lisa Gardner like I was, I’d probably steer toward one of her more highly recommended titles instead of starting here.