A Story of Love, Murder and Obsession

Chicago, 1931. Asta Eicher, a lonely widow with three children, is thrilled when Harry Powers asks her to marry him, and agrees to travel with him to West Virginia.

She and her children are never seen alive again.

Emily Thornhill, one of the few women in the Chicago press, is sent to cover their disappearance. Obsessed with trying to find out what happened to the family, her investigations lead deeper into the case, uncovering the terrifying truth behind the tragedy.

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Jayne Anne Phillips, born and raised in West Virginia, is the author of four previous novels,Lark and Termite,MotherKind,Shelter, andMachine Dreams, and two widely anthologised collections of stories,Fast LanesandBlack Tickets.Lark and Termite, winner of the Heartland Prize, was a Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Prix de Médicis Étranger. Phillips is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Bunting Fellowship, the Sue Kaufman Prize and an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is the Distinguished Professor of English and Director of the MFA Programme at Rugters-Newark, the State University of New Jersey. She divides her time between Boston, New York and New Jersey.

www.jayneannephillips.com