LIES LOST AND FOUND

A hidden note, a stash of cash, and a dead father’s secrets launch a photojournalist and her family into a dangerous mystery in Boulden’s novel.

Rose Webster returns to Lake Amelia, New York, to recover from a workplace accident that has left her physically limited and emotionally disoriented. Still reeling from the back-to-back deaths of her father, Randall, who died of an unexpected heart attack, and her mother, Carly, who succumbed to cancer, Rose finds herself caught up in grief and stagnation. She’s also grappling with the revelation that her father had a child named Maxi with another woman—she’s a biracial lesbian in law enforcement who isn’t sure she wants a relationship with her more privileged journalist half-sister. While smudging Randall’s den with sage, Rose uncovers a sealed envelope containing $10,000 and a handwritten note suggesting someone had been in danger—and that her father, an attorney, may have been quietly investigating. Her older brother, Kirk (with whom she shares a warm but slightly distant relationship), and Maxi are largely uninterested at first, but Rose is captivated. With next to no clues, she takes up the mystery as a new kind of assignment, one that will help her to reclaim her sense of purpose. Alternating chapters set in 2010 follow Kelsey Jacobs, a woman working at Randall’s firm who overhears a Spanish-speaking immigrant worker at the Western Inlet Inn whispering about a disturbing incident and expressing fear for her daughter’s life. Kelsey’s efforts to help are met with resistance, and soon she’s being followed, run off the road, and silenced. Rose’s present-day inquiry gradually uncovers Kelsey’s story, deftly linking it to systemic abuse, corruption, and predation. Boulden, an Emmy-winning reporter and IPPY award-winning author, writes with a journalist’s keen eye for details (“A few drops of iced tea fell onto Kelsey’s lap when she raised her glass to her lips, making her question her choice of white linen slacks”). Her prose is grounded, deliberate, and emotionally resonant. Though the pacing is occasionally slow, the story delivers a classic whodunit wrapped in themes of moral courage and buried family dynamics.

A gripping, socially conscious mystery in which timelines collide in a tangle of lies, murder, and conspiracy.