It’s 1935. The Evans family is once again at their summer house on a Minnesota lake. This has been their tradition for years. But their fortunes have taken a downturn in this new economy, so things may be changing soon. They have braced for that. But the change that comes is not what they anticipated. During the last night of their stay, their youngest daughter, Emily, disappears, her bed empty in the morning. Inconsolable, her mother refuses to leave. She vows to wait until Emily returns. That wait turns into a lifetime. Her older daughters, Lilith and Lucy, stay with her. Only their father goes back home. The family has been forever broken.

Decades later now, Lucy still lives in the lake house, but alone. Mother died long ago, and Lilith has passed away, too. For company, Lucy has her childhood friend, Matthew, who owns and runs the lodge at the lake. As she herself nears death, Lucy at last wonders if she made the right choice staying here, if she made the right choice when Emily went missing, and if her choices cost too many people too much. So she makes a bold choice to write down the truth of what happened that summer. She wants her grandniece, Justine, to have the true story. What Justine does with that story will be up to her. Once Lucy has unburdened herself, she can die in peace.

"Beautifully written, THE LOST GIRLS will please suspense fans as well as those who love redemptive fiction. This is a big, bold, heart-wrenching book reminiscent of novels by Jodi Picoult, and is an excellent debut."

The inheritance of a lake house comes at a good time for Justine. She can’t quite put her finger on what it is about her boyfriend, but something inside her has been warning her to get away from him. So she and her daughters pack up and make the cross-country trip from San Diego to Minnesota to claim her legacy. Once they arrive, Justine takes a look at the rundown, freezing old house and wonders what on earth possessed her to think this might work. Her daughters instantly hate it, they look miserable and, in truth, Justine has huge personal doubts about living here. Was this a foolish, impetuous move after all? Was Justine’s decision once again a poor one? No, she tells herself, this will be a clean break, exactly what they need. As soon as the girls settle into school, as soon as Justine finds a job and they fix up the house, they will love their new home. Of course, nothing ever works quite so simply as that.

Told from the alternating viewpoints of Lucy and Justine, the past and future come together in a harsh collision where Justine discovers startling long-buried secrets. In the grip of a frigid winter, isolated from the town, ghosts rise up to meet the living out at the lake. Complicating the young family’s adjustment is the arrival of Justine’s mother, Maurie, as the temperatures plummet. Never an easy person to be around, Maurie has her own axe to grind, having been left out of Aunt Lucy’s will. She begins a not-so-subtle raid on the house’s contents and a campaign to undermine her daughter’s parenting. Then, somehow, things manage to go downhill from there.

The saga of multiple generations of Evans women nearly overshadows the mystery of what happened to tiny Emily so long ago. Yes, it’s important, but the trials the sisters live through and Lucy’s sacrifices for her family shine a spotlight on the power of love --- some joyful, some destructive and others healing --- and make you almost forget about the tragedy of the loss. Author Heather Young has tapped into deep emotions that mold her characters into wonderfully complicated and flawed individuals. Beautifully written, THE LOST GIRLS will please suspense fans as well as those who love redemptive fiction. This is a big, bold, heart-wrenching book reminiscent of novels by Jodi Picoult, and is an excellent debut.