One Night Gone – Tara Laskowski

Graydon House | October 1, 2019 | Paperback

​Tara Laskowski’s debut thriller takes a well-timed swing at how society has and still treats women like their disposable. The narration is shared by a recently divorced meteorologist Allison Simpson in 2015, and a teenage-runaway turned carnie, Maureen Haddaway in 1985. Although the two women are separated by 30 years, they both find themselves in Opal Beach--a town that was originally exclusive to society’s elites, but that has slowly been opened up to the public over the years.

​Allison is trying to start over after being fired from her job for calling her cheating (now ex) husband out on live television and winds up house-sitting in the beach town. While there, she crosses paths with several people who had known Maureen before her mysterious disappearance during the summer of '85 and befriends one of Maureen’s closest friends, Tammy. While many have a clear distaste for Maureen and believe she simply took off, Tammy believes otherwise.

Laskowski has crafted two sharp narrators that feel familiar in a way that they could be any woman or teenager we pass on the street. It’s a familiarity that makes us empathize, but it's also the sort that unnerves. For while we think we know them, it's clear there is far more lurking beneath the surface, as well as the elitist town they find themselves in. And the more Laskowski peels back these layers, the faster we read. We need to know what happened to Maureen. We want to find out how these women are connected.