Julie Maloney has crafted an incredible debut novel. Beautifully written, with prose that will make you pause and reread, she has also created characters that are so real, you will not forget them after the last page is turned. Maddie Stewarts nightmare begins on a beach in New Jersey, but eventually takes her into the underbelly of the Russian mob and eventually to Germany. Along the way, Maddie begins to find a part of herself she'd all but forgotten, an artist who begins to blossom as a way to deal with the unimaginable. Thought provoking and suspenseful, this is a book club's dream novel.