Once again Joël Dicker (The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair, The Baltimore Boys) does not stint on the word count in this sprawling, clever and intricately plotted thriller, The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, which at twice the length of most contemporary thrillers gives much food for thought…

Just dwelling on the length of the book initially, what Dicker so adroitly achieves, is keeping the plot fluid and engrossing as it pivots between two distinct timelines, never confusing the reader as to where they are in time, and which branch of the story is being played out or referenced. Set twenty years apart, and with characters playing roles in each, Dicker embraces this significant period of lapsed time in the book to fill in the history of not only individual protagonists, but to draw the reader into the unveiling of what amounts to a significant miscarriage of justice, and the slow reveal of the actual killer and their motivations for the crime. This proves a real masterclass in thriller plotting, and how to sustain such a feeling of dramatic tension over a not insignificant page count, with each twist and surprising turn in the plot feeling entirely organic and natural, with plenty for the characters and the readers themselves to revisit and puzzle over as the story progresses. As the story takes place among the annual staging of a theatre festival in a small American town, the book is very much structured as a play, with the individual sections referenced as acts, and all the characters can be conceived as players upon a stage. In fact, in reference to the structure of seven parts to the book I was reminded of this Shakespeare quote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”

Dicker keeps a tight rein on the number of characters, with each of their personal stories clear and easy to follow as the timeline changes, and in the vein of great dramatic theatre, some of them experience a huge gamut of emotive upheaval and personal loss in this search for both the missing journalist, Stephanie Mailer, and the revisiting of past events. None more so than the main detective duo of Jesse Rosenberg and Derek Scott, whose personal and professional history really come to the fore, and Rosenberg in particular was a real stand out character for me. As a man intent on being a “righter of wrongs” and a “protector of the weak” the gradual reveal of the huge emotional cost to him personally of the events twenty years prior, and his insistence on, and determination of re-solving the original case, and to track down Mailer, are at the very heart of this book. Ably assisted by Scott, who has his own personal demons to grapple with, and a female deputy Anna Kanner who is an absolute joy throughout, Rosenberg comes to realise that something has gone very wrong in their original investigation, and with a tenacity and guile accrued through the years seeks to right the wrongs of the past and the present. Dicker’s other characters are a kaleidoscope of stoics, eccentrics, ne’er-do wells and fools in differing measures, again circling us back to the theme of theatre and the true characters that lurk behind the face they show to the world, and significantly all playing a important part in the book overall…

Dicker captures perfectly the claustrophobic atmosphere of small town life in Orphea “a small, swanky, oceanside resort,” with this book transcending the location in which it is set, making it recognisable to readers globally who have had experience of living in a suffocating small town. Everyone knows everyone’s business, gossip is rife, local corruption is an accepted given, and when the town opens out annually for the theatre festival, Dicker shows clearly how the dynamics change, bringing an added layer of life and colour to the town, and outsiders are welcomed, and not-so-welcomed, in. This small, outwardly respectable community is imbued with jealousy, obsession, avarice and greed that can only lead to false accusations, murder and kidnap, and as the story plays out, the reader will encounter all of these traits, and more besides, in its inhabitants.

Like Joël Dicker’s previous books, The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer is a beautifully plotted and intelligent thriller, with a varied and fascinating cast of characters that immerses you completely from the outset. As the story circles between past and present, and the true motivations, desires, weaknesses and failings of the central protagonists are carefully and gradually revealed. I became totally consumed by the chicanery, corruption and the dark individuals present in this singularly atmospheric small town, and equally by the law enforcement officers who have their own personal stories of loss and frustration, but who seem to be empowered and driven on by their sense of justice and morality to admit mistakes, and seek to correct the wrongs of the past. With another assured and flowing translation by Howard Curtis, and with time something we all seem to have a little more of at the moment, this is a chunky satisfying thriller that I would heartily recommend.

This book was so long winded and just plain muddled that it was a real struggle for me to finish it. The translation in many parts seemed clunky and I am hoping this copy was an uncorrected proof as there were several errors as well.
Taking place in 1994 and 2014, the book follows the murders from 1994 of a family and a passing jogger. The family being the local Mayor and his wife and two children. The police who are looking into the case in 2014, after they find the accused is in fact most probably innocent, uncover a whole lot of new evidence which seemed to me should have been discovered 20 years before.
I feel maybe it was my disinterest in the book that made it not flow as I put it down so many times. I loved Dicker’s The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair and although that was told in the same slow style, it was 100 times better.

I looked forward to reading this book from the description, and it did not disappoint!

The story was truly engrossing and had many well written descriptive characters.

I found the ending a little rushed in some ways, but over all I really enjoyed it.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for ARC

Joël Dicker is the master of the missing person mystery! 'The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer' is full of twists and turns, false leads and lies spanning the previous twenty years in the small town of Orphea.

I am obsessed with this book. If you want to completely immerse yourself in a gripping police investigation, this is definitely the book for you.

At 500 pages, this is an investment rather than a quick and easy read, but the major benefit of this is that the amount of detail surrounding the investigation and the various characters’ back-stories is incredible. As I was reading, I got so involved in the storyline, that I actually felt like I was part of the murder mystery. I read the whole book over a weekend and just could not put it down.

Don’t let the size of the book put you off. I was a massive fan of 'The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair' (which again is a hefty 624 pages), so I might be biased, but 'The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer' has gone straight to the top of my 2021 reads and it’s going to be a difficult one to beat.

This is a great thriller with the reader guessing right to the very end who the killer is. I found it quite complicated with the book jumping from past to present and different people talking but enjoyed the story and the gripping end.

This is my first Joel Dicker book and I loved it! At almost 500 pages, this book might seem like a tad too long but every page was worth it! The character development is superb and the suspense is well-maintained throughout the story. I loved the POV characters and their side stories. Also, I must appreciate the lovely translation work.

Gripping and riveting mystery. Recommended to all mystery lovers!

I thank the publisher, Quercus Books, and NetGalley for providing me an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.
I read and reviewed The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair almost three years back (during my summer holidays. Remember those?), and I was enthralled by it, to the point where I got a couple of other books by the same author, which I intended to read. Being aware that his books are normally quite long and you need to keep your wits about you when you’re reading them, I’d been postponing that moment (I don’t need to tell you that things have been weird recently, and I think a lot of us have found it difficult to concentrate), but when I saw this book was available, and I was invited to participate in the blog tour, it was all the motivation I needed to plunge into it. I also realised why the name of the book was so familiar to me. I’ve seen it published in its Spanish translation and doing quite well, but I hadn’t realised it hadn’t been released in English yet.
Sorry for the long detour, but I think it’s a reflection of the impact the book has had on me, as it has a way of going off on tangents, or so they seem at the time. I wonder what would happen if somebody else wrote a book like this, and it reached the hands of a standard editor, who would follow the usual advice of removing anything that did not serve to move the plot forward, avoid unnecessary detours, streamline the story… This is a long book, with twists and turns galore, cul-de-sacs plot-wise, and of course, secrets, red herrings, clues, and revelations spread merrily around. I can imagine the author being advised to get rid of characters, or to, perhaps, leave out some of the side-stories and plotlines, maybe write separate novelettes or bonus chapters for followers which would include the background story of some of those characters. But this is a Joël Dicker novel, and he has proven more than once that he can get away with murder. Quite literally.
I am not sure I can talk about the plot in detail without revealing any spoilers, and I want to avoid that at all costs. Without going into the story, I can tell you that what struck me the most, thinking about it, is that although this book includes many standard plot devices and even clichés (you have the detective about to leave the police force, trying to solve a last case just before he hands back his badge; you have a female police detective trying to fit into a small town’s police force whose members are less than accepting of women among their ranks; you have a corrupt politician; a middle-aged man in a powerful position cheating on his wife with his young secretary; an ambitious reporter going after a story at all costs; the spoilt daughter of a rich man who’s mixing with the wrong company and getting herself into trouble…) they all fit in together and create a whole that is not in itself a challenge of any of the tropes, but something other.
In some ways, the story brought to my mind the term of pastiche as used by Fredrick Jameson when talking about postmodern writing. It is not a parody of other genres, it’s a celebration. The author knows and loves a multitude of genres, and rather than poke fun at them, he uses them to create a narrative that is many things in one. Let me count… the genres (or subgenres): 1) the mystery. Overall, there is a mystery hanging over the whole novel and pulling all its strings and characters together, like a centrifugal force, towards Orphea, the small town where most of the events and actions converge, and a character in its own right. The title hints at the mystery, and the disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, a journalist, is what sets the whole story in motion. I’ve mentioned red herrings, twists and turns, clues… We even have secret messages and codes, and we are likely to recognise the typical elements of a cozy mystery, with the setting in a small lovely town in the Hamptons, a friendly bookshop, a charming theatre festival…; 2) the police procedural. I’ve talked about a detective who’s about to leave the force, Jessie. He is challenged by Stephanie Mailer to reconsider the first case he solved, the beginning of his successful career, and that turns his world inside out. He manages to convince his partner at the time, Derek, to join him in the investigation (he took a desk job after the case, for reasons that become clear much later), and they get the assistance of the most recent recruit into the small-town police force, a female officer, Anna, who is having trouble fitting into the close-knit and somewhat misogynistic department. They review the old case, investigate the new clues, and keep digging into evidence, old and new; 3) the noir novel/thriller. A local gangster who uses underhand methods to gain influence over men and turn them into his slaves (underage girls and torture are featured as well), has a night club with an alluring singer, a brutal henchman by his side, and who manages to rub too many people the wrong way plays a part; 4) the second-chance/reinventing yourself story. Anna, the policewoman, has reinvented herself more than once. She studied Law and started working for her father’s company but soon realised this was not for her and trained to enter the police. She quickly became a detective, got married to a lawyer working for her father, and became a negotiator. Her husband wasn’t terribly keen on the idea, things went terribly wrong, and she decided to leave it all behind. Unfortunately, what she finds in Orphea, the charming town, isn’t exactly what she bargained for; 4) the coming of age story. Dakota, the daughter of a rich man, the CEO of an important TV channel, keeps getting into trouble, mixes with the wrong companies, and seems unable to keep her life in order. But there is a reason behind her behaviour; 5) small-town American and its dark underbelly. The lovely town of Orphea might seem idyllic, but it hides all kinds of corrupt practices, characters who are not as squeaky clean as they seem to be, and there is a dark secret (well, a few) about to burst open; 6) dark comedy/farce. We have a talentless ex-chief of police who desperately wants to become a successful dramatist, and he’d do anything to get his play (he’s been working on it for twenty years, so you can forgive him for that) onto the stage. We also have an important literary critic who’d love nothing better than to become an actor, and he will subject himself to any humiliation willingly to be given that chance. He’s joined by another chief-of-police who also wants to shine on stage (Oh, and how they do…). And the play… But those are not the only comedic elements in the story. Jessie’s back story, and his maternal grandparents, also seem strait from a less-than-gentle comedy (expletives and all; and I must confess there is a blonde wig somewhere that made me think of ET), and some of the most extreme behaviours of some of the characters seem taken right out of the Looney Tunes (the original Warner Bros series); 7) romance/romantic novels. We have quite a few stories that have romance at its heart, some set in the past and not standard HEA fare (Jessie and Natasha’s love story, with something of the Greek tragedy about it), Derek and his wife, the critic and his lover (I’m keeping my mouth firmly shut about this), the town mayor and his wife, the local newspaper editor and his wife, and… (sorry, no spoilers); 8) the story I mentioned of a middle-aged man who falls madly in love/lust with his young secretary, featuring adultery, manipulation, extortion and… I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but this wasn’t meant to be an all-inclusive list.
If all that sounds like chaos, well, you have a point, but, quoting Shakespeare, I’d say “there is a method to his madness”.
As you can guess, talking about all the characters would take forever, and I won’t try. I’ll only say that although many are not particularly likeable, at least, to begin with, we get to see many of them under a different light by the end of the novel (not always for the better, but most of them come out of it as quite human and relatable). The same goes for the themes, and you’ve got a good idea about those already from my comments about the genres. Guilt, lost opportunities, the consequences of keeping secrets from those we love and from everybody, and the cost of trying to find out the truth when there are powerful incentives at play to keep it buried, come up often in the novel, and there are multiple references not only to other genres, but also to classic plots and works of literature (the name of the town and the reference to Orpheus could easily apply to Jessie and the mourning of his lost love, but this is just one of many).
The novel is narrated by a variety of characters, and we hear the first-person narratives of quite a few of them (not all, but many). The way it works is: somebody is telling us what is happening (Jessie, for example) in 2014, the time when the contemporary story is set, and he finds a clue or he talks to somebody, and then, as if in a flashback, we are transported to 1994, and, usually in the third person, we get to see/experience that scene. There are multiple references to the actual time and to the person whose perspective we are reading, but these are interrupted by the trips to the past, or by somebody’s memories (like those of Dakota, at some point). That results in readers getting both, a personal perspective of the story, from several points of view, and also a narration of past events, seemingly from an omniscient point of view. It didn’t always run completely smoothly (I’m fully aware I was reading an early ARC copy, so some of the issues might have to do with that, and they were very minor), but I felt it was a satisfying alternative to the long stretches of “telling” so typical in classical mysteries. I’ve only read another novel by this author, but from the comments I’ve read, I understand that he’s also used a similar narrative style in several of his novels (and I definitely intend to read more of them in the future), so it might have become his trademark, although it’s too early in his career to come to conclusions.
There are plenty of memorable quotes here as well, but not quite as many as in Harry Quebert. This is a long book, and readers need to be on their guard and pay close attention to all they read, but as I’ve said, temporal changes are signposted, there is a list of characters at the back, and the writing isn’t precious or overly complicated. There are plenty of detours, and the writing meanders rather than rushing at breakneck speed towards the finish line, but I enjoyed getting side-tracked and following the character’s stories. After reading many stories that strictly follow the rules, I enjoy those who go their own way and take risks, although I know many people won’t share my feelings.
Did I guess the mystery? Well, which one? I did guess quite a few of the important twists and picked up on many of the clues, although no, I didn’t guess the final reveal, and I think that most people won’t until very close to the end, because of the way the story is constructed. But I must confess to being more taken by some of the side-stories at times and not being that concerned about the actual name by the end. It reminded me of a scene in Amadeus when Mozart describes to the emperor a particular scene in one of his operas, where he keeps adding more and more voices singing all in unison. A tour de force. Yes, as the ending neared I kept wondering how many more turns the plot would take before the actual final curtain. In case you’re worried, the main mystery is solved. (What does that mean? Well, you go ahead and read the book if you want to know). And yes, there is a coda of sorts, and I liked what we’re told happens to the characters later on. I’m not sure it’s the ideal ending, but I enjoyed it. If I have to choose from the two books I’ve read by Dicker, I prefer The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, but that was one of my favourite books in recent years, so this is no mean feat either.
So, would I recommend it? Of course. With some provisos. Be sure you have plenty of time to read it. As I’ve said, it’s complicated, and it brings many stories together, so if you only have time to pick it up a few minutes at a time over days and days, you might get quite confused, or you might have to keep going back. It’s important to set aside sufficient time to read it so that you can keep the details (or at least the main details) fresh and straight in your mind. Also, if you prefer slim, streamlined, and bare narratives, or straightforward mysteries with no flights of fancy or backstories, this is not for you. If you’re happy to be taken for a ride, enjoy long books, and like to mix and match genres and challenge conventions, you’ll definitely have a good time. I would also recommend it to writers thinking of writing mysteries or crime novels, as it is impossible to read this book and not ponder and keep thinking about how it has been written.
I’ll leave you with a quote from The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, which I feel applies here: A good book, Marcus, is a book you are sorry to have finished.

This was my first of Joël Dicker’s novels. I understand the love his book has received and think the mystery was one of detail and many layers. I did enjoy it but it felt on he long side,.

After over twenty years on the police force Jesse Rosenberg is ready for early retirement but when young journalists Stephanie Mailer approaches Jesse to say that the murders he solved with partner Derek Scott twenty years ago was wrong and they got the wrong guy Jesse can't just let it go.
With only a few days left to retirement Stephanie goes missing and Jesse believes that it has something to do with the old case.
Could him and Derek had got it wrong all those years ago?
If so who is the real killer?

This book was one hell of a journey.

It's an incredibly long and detailed book. At times, it is confusing as you are trying to solve two interrelated mysteries. But I could just about stay with it until the ending.

The ending confused the hell out of me. Part of the ending was disappointing but the very ending confused me to the point where I'm not sure what I just read.

I did enjoy this book. The mystery was good. The writing was good. The characters were engaging.

Could it have been shorter? Absolutely! It did feel convoluted at times. Some of the challenges were very annoying and there were lots of unnecessary descriptions. It could have done with a trim.

However, I was left guessing right to the end and I didn't see the ending coming.

This is very interesting and isn't forgettable that's for sure!

TW: suicide references, violence and murder

“Only those familiar with the Hamptons, in New York State, knew what happened on July 30th, 1994,

in a small, swanky Oceanside resort called Orphea.” (Page 7)

It was opening night of the Orphea Theatre Festival. It was also the day that Meghan Padalin was shot in the back of the head and the Mayor of the town and his whole family was murdered. Was it a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for Meghan? Did she see something happen at the Mayor’s house which was across the street from where she was running?

Fast forward to June 23rd, 2014 which is the day that Captain Jesse Rosenberg is due to retire. At 45 he has decided to explore other opportunities before it becomes too late. It is a big blow to the local community as it was Rosenberg that solved the murder of the Mayor and his family back in 1994. Since that day, he has become somewhat of a celebrity around town.

But did he get it right?

Journalist Stephanie Mailer doesn’t believe so, and quite openly informs Rosenberg of this. She believes she has solid evidence that he is wrong but is not prepared to share any of this with him until she has met with her source; a source she is unprepared to disclose.

Unfortunately for Stephanie, the last time she is seen is at Rosenberg’s retirement party.

What has happened to her? Did she get too close to the truth? Has the killer come out of hiding after all these years?

Distressed and feeling responsible Rosenberg cannot settle and knows that, until this murder is resolved, he will be unable to retire from the force. But can he convince his old partner Derek, that there is a reason to reopen the supposedly solved case of 1994? Will his partner agree to work with him once again to bring justice to those that deserve it?

Was there undue pressure put on Rosenberg and Derek to solve the original case? Did they miss something of vital importance that meant they have convicted the wrong person? Did the time restrictions and pressure put upon them lead to them slacking on their investigation? Has all of this resulted in the recent disappearance of a savvy and intelligent young journalist who initially looked into the case thinking that she could turn the story into a book?

Anna Kanner is both intelligent and beautiful. When she was younger she thought she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. Driven, she went to university to study Law; it was the only thing she had ever wanted to do. She had her whole life planned out; knew exactly where her life was going. However, it wasn’t long before she became despondent with the legal system and billing hours so decided to quit and instead become a police officer, much to the dismay of her parents.

Since then, she has been married and divorced, again much to her parents disdain as they considered Mark, her then-husband to be the perfect partner for her and is now working in what her mother terms as a ‘one-horse town’, and so far, hasn’t even been promoted to Police Chief yet.

Could this case be the big break Anna needs to make her mark on the town?

With the old partnership of Derek and Jesse back on the case with the added benefit of having new insights from Anna, it seems that the team are uncovering far more than the initial investigation ever did.

The further the three of them seem to dig for answers, the more they discover about the well-heeled individuals calling Orphea home. On the outside, this may look like the perfect little sleepy town where only wholesome citizens reside, but as Anna, Derek and Jesse discover, not everything is always as it seems.

My Thoughts on The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer
As soon as I heard that Joel Dicker, author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, had a new book out I knew it had to be added to my reading list.

Firstly, I do need to stress that Joel Dicker’s writing isn’t for everyone. The author himself writes in French which means they are translated into English and the result, for some, is that his writing style can be a bit slow and tedious. I don’t agree with this, but I am a reader who enjoys detailed storylines and in-depth descriptions.

Friends recommended The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair to me a couple of years back and I consumed the 624 pages in a matter of days so I thought the same would happen again with this one. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Do not get me wrong, the story is extremely well written if not a bit slow. Whereas the first book of Dicker’s needed the extra details in order for the story to feel complete, I did feel that this one dragged in places.

That is not to say, I regretted reading it but I feel that my expectations clouded my thoughts on this one. If I had read The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer before The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, I honestly believe my final thoughts would have been very different.

It is a well-written tome of a novel, but for those that prefer a hard-hitting, fast-paced crime story, I am not sure it would be for you. The fact that many have compared this young writer to the likes of Nabokov and Roth suggests that his writing is more of a modern classic than anyone perhaps yet recognises.

In my opinion, he does indeed write like someone who lived many years ago and has clearly adopted their style of formal language and impeccable sentence structure. Joel has clearly perfected his craft and it is easy to see that he spends a great deal of time researching his storylines to make sure of their accuracy. His crime writing, for me at least, is a more believable reflection on what a true-life crime investigation would look like. I often feel that several popular crime novels sensationalise violent storylines in order to keep readers gripped. If anything, Joel’s writing manifests reality with the length of his books being symbolic of how lengthy investigations can often be.

Have you read The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer? Perhaps you have read another book by the award-winner author and have an opinion you would like to share with us.

I'm abandoning this one at around the 10% mark. Multiple narrators, all indistinguishable from one another; jumping back and forwards in time; messy writing, such as having a first-person narrator knowing what other characters are thinking, and what they did when not in the presence of the narrator. Frankly, I find it almost unreadably bad - all style over substance, and unfortunately not even good style. And it's hundreds of pages too long - where was the editor?

I loved this book so much and can't quite believe I haven't come across this author before. So, here goes journalist Stephanie Mailer, approaches detective Jesse Rosenberg who is just about to take early retirement. Twenty years earlier Rosenberg along with his partner Scott solved a murder in which four people were gunned down...but did they? Stephanie Mailer believes they looked at the case the wrong way. When the duo arrange to meet her to discuss why she believes they got the wrong man ... Stephanie disappears... I loved everything about this book: the town of Orphea just outside of New York with it's mayor, independent stores and subtle wealth. The strong female leads including the deputy mayor who helps Rosenberg and Scott solve the case gets a big thumbs up form me too. The backhand forth really works within the narrative and we also understand what happened to the deceives since they 'solved' the murder. A riveting read.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

I found this book very intriguing. I did however find that the writing style and progression was very slow for such a long book. In parts it really dragged and I found it a struggle to get through. The beginning and the end really did Lee me hooked and I really did like it. The middle however feel a little bit short for me, I ended up skim reading the book and putting it down very often. Unfortunately this means that the connection that I was starting to build with the characters started to fall short. I would recommend this book.

The more I read the more interesting the story became. With lots of twists and turns along the way, and an ending I didn’t predict, this is a great crime story.

A well-written addictive read, Plenty of twists and turns a genuine page-turner. An entertaining and enjoyable read. Recommended.

loved tjhis book, really had me guessing and I really got involved in the characters and their back stories too. It was full of great deal on small American town detail and politics. Definitely read his other now.

I loved the Harry Quebert Affair so was really excited to read this. The novel opens brilliantly, A prelude dramatically detailing Samuel Padalin's frantic search for his wife Meghan and the subsequent discovery of her body lying bloodied in the street which then abruptly moves to the novel proper and the speeches given as Detective Jesse Rosenberg is leaving the police force after 23 years. Jesse is known as Captain 100% because of his success rate in solving crimes. Jesse's first ever case was the case involving Meghan Padalin and the family of the town Mayor and his wife and child.
Enter Stephanie Mailer, a journalist who approaches Jesse Rosenberg and calls him Captain 99%. Stephanie shows him a newspaper article about his historic solving of the Orphea Mayoral family and bystander murders and boldly tells him that he got the wrong man and that the killer is still out there. She "thought he'd like to know before he left the police force"
Stephanie asks for the original police force and says that she has a meeting coming up that will give her the irrefutable proof that she needs. She tells Rosenberg she will see him later, but later never comes as Stephanie disappears.
The story moves between 1994 and 2014 and is told by Jesse Rosenberg and Derek Scott his partner from back in 1994.
The novel centres around the Orphea Film Festival, both the first in 1994 and the upcoming 2014 festival with chapter beginings showing how many days until the festival, ramping up the pace of the story.
There are so many twists and turns and every explanation seems completely correct and acceptable until someone else produces another theory. The end when it came was surprising but wasn't a complete surprise.

Stephanie Mailer is a journalist looking into deaths that occurred in the small town of Orphea in The Hamptons. In 1994, on the evening of the Orphea Theatre Festival, four people are shot dead. The State police investigate the original killings, and detectives Jesse Rosenberg and Derek Scott believe the killer is a local. restaurant owner Ted Tennenbaum. Then, as Ted dies in an accident, the police closed the case, believing they found their killer. Then as Stephanie looks into the case in 2014, she suddenly disappears, so Jesse, Derek and Anne Kanner look into the new case, shedding light on the old one.

Told in two time frames, through multiple narratives and with an exceptional level of detail the novel is quite slow. I had to really concentrate because there were times when the structure, multiple characters and timelines obscured the plot. I felt like it might have been a better book with some sub-plots removed. However, I did enjoy cases, both the current and past ones. They were twisty and the author really intensified the tension towards the end which made the novel more enjoyable. Amazingly, considering the detail, the loose ends do seem to tie up too. There were revelations I didn’t see coming, which is a rarity in this genre i find. The book was interesting and kept my attention, but might have benefitted from tightening the pace early on.