Emily Graham just moved to her house in Spring Lake New-Jersey - a house that was owned by her ancestors about a hundred years ago. On Emily’s first day in her new home, a skeleton is found in her yard. A skeleton of a young woman who was missing since the day she disappeared four and a half years ago. Inside the skeleton palm, another finger bone was found, a 100 years old finger bone wearing a ring. The bone belonged to Emily’s great great aunt who disappeared from the same house while waiting for her fiancée on the porch. In 1893, two years after the first disappearance, another young woman disappeared, and about two years later – a third one. When Emily, a criminal defense attorney, starts to investigate the 100 years old disappearances, another double grave is reviled in the neighborhood. This one too contains two bodies. One, a 100 years old body of the second disappearance, and the other of a young woman who disappeared two years ago at exactly the same day.
Rumors start to be heard that the present murderer is a reincarnation of the old one. Everyone is a suspect. Emily is determined to get to the roots of the 3 old murders. She is looking for old diaries and letters, old maps and pictures, and is trying to figure out Spring Lake and its residents at that time. What she doesn’t know is she is marked to be the third victim. On March 31st everyone is waiting for the last murder that will complete the copycat of the three old ones. Will the police be there in time to save Emily?
Mary Higgins Clark certainly knows how to make your blood run cold and no doubt she is the queen of suspense.