Unseasonably Cold

In Ephron’s historical novel, a society woman attempts to solve her best friend’s disappearance.

New York, 1939: A year has passed since Jane Henry, a popular columnist and heiress to a publishing fortune, vanished without a trace. No one’s taken the news quite so hard as her best friend, Liza Simon, the last person Jane lunched with before her disappearance. Liza has never been able to forget one of the last things Jane said to her: “Billy…has turned ‘unseasonably cold.’” Billy Henry is Jane’s husband, a stoic trial attorney who’s seemed unemotional ever since Jane’s unexplained absence. When Liza confronts Billy, he admits that Jane had threatened to leave him before she went missing; he also confesses that he’s become involved with a new woman. The investigation cleared him months ago, but Liza isn’t convinced. When a newspaper article references a “possible break” in the case, Liza is disturbed to learn that the new information implicates her own brother (and Jane’s beau before Billy), Timothy Simon. Timothy was a person of interest earlier in the investigation, and he’s recalled from his job in London to answer for some incriminating new evidence. If Liza wants to clear her brother, she’ll have to figure out the truth about Jane’s fate. Ephron inhabits the points of view of several of her characters, but the writing is particularly alive when she’s aligned with Liza. Here, Liza suspects that reporter Ben Hart, who once saved her from drowning, may be using their connection to get the story: “The salty taste of the ocean, the moment of distinct fear, when she felt the wave roll over and take her further out to sea, his swiftness at reaching her. He could be gaming her.” Told in quick chapters that add to the sense of mystery and fragmented memory, this story will appeal to readers of crime fiction and literary fiction alike.

A spare historical thriller about trusting the wrong people.