An audio book.
2 timelines: one starting after a shooting incident, one leading up to it. Cliff-hangers end most chapters.
Rebekah, 39. is stuck on an island miles from New York. She puts stitches in a cut by her eye. She's looking for her brother Johnny, a dig site, and her jeep. Her American father married a Cambridge girl when he was stationed in England. 3 children later, when Rebecca was 3, she left, never to be seen again. Later, her father took the family (except her, because she had a scholarship) to the States. She joined them, became a doctor, married Gareth and had 2 daughters. Her father died. A younger brother died in a car accident. Johnny, the other brother always hoped to be a novelist. Johnny wanted to do some research at the island, planning to meet Dr Stelzig but they'd found him murdered.
The island's been abandoned (except for summer season) since a hurricane damaged it. She raids the store for food, thinks that her attempted murderer might be on the island (they are, but they take the season's last ferry off the island), and that Johnny's dead (a killer was on the island. He tried to kill her too - he thought he had). She finds a dog - Stelzig's.
Weeks later she's still on the island. Nobody knew where she's gone. She'd separated from Gareth when he was unfaithful. She'd slept with another man. Her friend Noella had been babysitting the kids. She wonders whether Gareth had been unfaithful with Noella.
A detective, Frank Travis, is about to retire. He's curious about a missing person case involving Louise, an artist. After an anonymous call saying he should check out her boyfriend again, he tried to re-interview Johnny, But he's been missing from work for 7 weeks.
Months pass. She finds on Stelzig's laptop evidence connecting him to Gareth. She sticks paper on his office wall until it looks like an investigation room (her father had been a policeman). It seems that the murderers knew she was coming. While she prepares for the next day's first ferry of the season (it's April) when people (including the murderers?) return to the island, the detective's timeline is back before Xmas.
The murderers arrive. They hunt her down. She's saved by a man. Travis arrives (after retirement, he was doing part-time work on cold cases). She's been away 5 months. Little effort had been made to find her, Johnny, or Dr Stelzig. Um. One of the murderers is still on the loose.
Rebecca's return is awkward, because Gareth has told the girls she was dead, and Gareth has found someone else. A new plot, briefly mentioned near the start, is unveiled - police are involved. One of them is one of the murderers on the island. Another, McKenzie, is head of police, a woman who was trying to cover for her brother - the man Rebecca had a one-night-stand with. Ambitious McKenzie didn't want her reputation damaged. Johnny is dead.
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