Two classmates at a convent boarding school in Kansas in 1910 find themselves in danger when one girl’s mother is missing and someone doesn’t want her found.

In Mueller’s debut novel, Sophiny Mumm and Antoinette Dominguez are students at Mount St. Mary’s Academy. A missionary visits and tells of his recent trip to Brazil. Sophiny has a crush on him and tells Antoinette, who has a secret as well: She plans to elope soon. Before leaving, Antoinette convinces Sophiny to trade trunks with her and secures a promise Sophiny won’t look in Antoinette’s unless “it cannot be prevented.” One sleepless night, Sophiny looks outside and sees a female depart in the dark, embrace a male and leave. When Antoinette doesn’t show for morning chapel and breakfast, Sophiny assumes her friend eloped but keeps her secret; Antoinette promised she’d keep in touch. Sophiny is already fatherless, and when her long-ill mother dies, she is summoned home to help her four brothers on the family farm. She writes to Sister Louise at the convent inquiring of her friend, but there’s been no news from Antoinette. Finally convinced to investigate Antoinette’s trunk, Sophiny finds clothes, cash and a notebook revealing what really happened. As heir to her late father’s fortune, Antoinette was sought by his partner, Stillman, a man she mistrusted and feared was keeping her beloved mother away. Antoinette is determined to locate her mother. Sophiny enlists her brothers and a new friend to help find Antoinette and Stillman, a particularly elegant villain. Slow-moving initially, the plot takes wing when Antoinette’s true quest is revealed. The writing is often lovely, as when Sophiny is on a wagon headed back to the farm: “The sweet smell of new grass after spring rains was heaven’s best gift to the earth, she thought. The quails and meadowlarks were nesting. Their mating calls came clear, sweet, and insistent.” Some scenes are told through Antoinette’s diary entries, giving a unique voice to her side of events and supplying missing pieces of the puzzle.

Well-crafted, sophisticated inspirational fiction.