The Unknown
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again.
Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot.
Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one.
Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island's previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again.
Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This atmospheric mystery from thriller star Riley Sager had us in its clutches and loving every minute of it. Marin is a working actress who’s finally caught her big break, co-starring in a period horror film about five women who famously went missing from an island in a Vermont lake a hundred years ago. Before shooting begins, the director has arranged for the cast to spend an entire week on the real island soaking up gothic vibes, wearing period attire, and holding seances…like the one rumored to have sealed the real women’s fate. With passages from the diary of one of the vanished women scattered throughout the narrative, Sager makes us feel the chilling isolation of the locale. And when things really start to pop off, the island setting turns the occult-tinged story into a brilliant locked-room mystery packed with twist after jaw-dropping twist. If you’re looking for a book that’ll keep you reading well past bedtime, dive into The Unknown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sager (With a Vengeance) offers a canny take on the closed-circle whodunit in this suspenseful tale of mysterious disappearances on an island in New England. Marin Keane, whose on-screen résumé consists of little more than eczema commercials, is ecstatic when she's cast as the lead in renowned director Ronan Peters's new film. The script is based on the diary of a woman who disappeared alongside four others in 1926 on New Avalon, an island in a Vermont lake. To research their roles, Marin and her costars—including legendary actor Violet Wright—take a studio-funded trip to New Avalon, where they're expected to wear period dress and live without modern conveniences, including cell phones. Not long after their arrival, Marin hears disturbing noises in the night, and is visited by the ghost of her sister, Molly, whose death Marin feels responsible for. Then, one by one, cast members go missing, in the same order as the characters they portray, leaving nothing behind but their dresses. Sager spruces up well-worn genre tropes with aplomb, and though the plot twists don't measure up to the author's most jaw-dropping, they're still plenty effective. Sager's many fans will walk away satisfied.
