Opening with the solitary buzz of an airplane as it flies into a remote Alaskan outpost and closing with tension that grows from heart-pounding to heart-stopping, Raymond Fleischmann‘s debut novel, How Quickly She Disappears is a deeply engrossing tale of obsession and isolation.
In 1941, Elisabeth lives in tiny Tanacross, Alaska with her husband, who works as a teacher for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and their bright, precocious daughter. While Elisabeth takes great pride in her close relationship with her daughter Margaret, her marriage is as cold and icy as the Alaskan wilderness that they call home. The deepest love in Elisabeth’s heart, however, is for her twin sister Jacqueline, who disappeared in childhood. Jacqueline still appears in her dreams, and though it has been twenty years, Elisabeth is convinced her sister is still alive…somewhere.
While living in a cold, desolate location in a cold, lonely marriage, an unusual confluence of events puts a stranger named Alfred into Elisabeth’s life. He’s a stranger who is obviously dangerous, but he also claims to know how to find Jacqueline.
Thus begins a cat and mouse game where the stakes grow exponentially with every step. As Alfred releases bits of evidence and information about Jacqueline to Elisabeth, he asks for more and more from her in return. Dealing with such a man is dangerous, and it further isolates Elisabeth from her family and her neighbours. But even the possibility of reuniting with her long lost twin is too great to turn her back on, and Elisabeth soon finds herself under Alfred’s spell.
Interspersed among the chapters telling the story of Alfred’s manipulations, Fleischmann fills in the gaps of Elisabeth’s childhood and her relationship with Jacqueline as they were raised by their father when their mother passed away while the girls were quite young.
Elisabeth’s obsession with recapturing the bond she remembers by finding her twin becomes all-consuming. As the stakes that Alfred sets become higher and higher, readers will find themselves barely able to hold on as they wait to see just how high of a price Elisabeth is willing to pay, and whether she will ever get what she is seeking.
Masterfully putting all the pieces of the past and the present together, Fleischmann assembles a story that fascinates, captivates, terrifies, and at times breaks the heart of the reader.
How Quickly She Disappears is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Dry meets Silence of the Lambs in this intoxicating tale of literary suspense, set in the relentless Alaskan landscape, about madness and obsession, loneliness and grief, and the ferocious bond of family…
It’s 1941 in small-town Alaska and Elisabeth Pfautz is alone. She’s living far from home, struggling through an unhappy marriage, and she spends her days tutoring her precocious young daughter. Elisabeth’s twin sister disappeared without a trace twenty years earlier, and Elisabeth’s life has never recovered. Cryptic visions of her sister haunt her dreams, and Elisabeth’s crushing loneliness grows more intense by the day. But through it all, she clings to one belief: That her sister is still alive, and that they’ll be reunited one day.
And that day may be coming soon. Elisabeth’s world is upended when Alfred Seidel – an enigmatic German bush pilot – arrives in town and murders a local man in cold blood. Sitting in his cell in the wake of his crime, Alfred refuses to speak to anyone except for Elisabeth. He has something to tell her: He knows exactly what happened to her long-missing sister, but he’ll reveal this truth only if Elisabeth fulfills three requests.
Increasingly isolated from her neighbors and imprisoned by the bitter cold and her own obsession, Elisabeth lets herself slip deeper into Alfred’s web. A tenuous friendship forms between them, even as Elisabeth struggles to understand Alfred’s game and what he’s after.
But if it means she’ll get answers, she’s willing to play by his rules. She’s ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to be reunited with her sister, even if it means putting herself – and her family – in mortal danger.
