One Night Gone: A Novel

One Night Gone is about two women separated by three decades. In the summer of 1985, Maureen was working with a traveling carnival group, C&D Amusements, grifting when necessary to survive. Everyone with C&D was running away from something. In Maureen's case, her grandfather cared for her, ensuring that she did her homework and got to school. Clinical depression was not yet understood. Five years ago, after her grandfather died, Maureen's mother began keeping the "clouds" away with pills and needles, thrusting them into a "nightmare that no one who lives in a giant beach mansion . . . would ever understand." To Maureen, the kids who live in Opal Beach are just like those in the other beach towns the carnival has taken her to. "They have it easy and they don't even know it." But she keeps her "Sad Story" to herself.

But Maureen is drawn to handsome, popular Clay Bishop, whose family owns area seafood restaurants and the biggest, most ornate home in Opal Beach. And wields the most power in town. She dreams about a real relationship rather than just a summer fling, even though Clay will soon be going away to college. And she is sure that her other new friend, Tammy, also has feelings for Clay.

In October 2015, Allison arrives to commence a stint as the housesitter for the Bishops' next-door neighbors. Allison enjoyed a career as a meteorologist until she learned about her husband's affair. Now she is known as the Weather Girl, the star of a viral video of the newscast during which, instead of just forecasting the weather, she suggested that her husband bring along his umbrella when slipping off with his girlfriend to their beach house getaway. "And a tip to all you adulterers out there -- if you like treating your umbrellas like you treat women, then you can toss out your old one and head over to Macy's this weekend where they're having a sale. Women aren't disposable, Duke." Her on-air meltdown cost Allison her job, dignity, and home. She's been crashing in her sister's apartment. But the housesitting job represents a chance for rejuvenation, emotional recovery, and contemplation of how to get her life back on track.

Shortly after Allison arrives in Opal Beach, she meets Tammy, who runs the local coffee house. Tammy confides in Allison that she still feels guilty about her inability to save Maureen. She insists that she knows "something bad happened to Maureen. I just know it," even though the local authorities concluded all those years ago that Maureen probably just left town on her own. There was no evidence of foul play. Nonetheless, Tammy insists she thinks Maureen was murdered.

Lawkowski employs two first-person narratives to relate the stories of the two women. Maureen details the events of the summer of 1985 -- her friendship with Tammy, blossoming romance with Clay, and the resentment and distrust Tammy's roommate, Mabel, displays when Tammy comes to Maureen's aid. Maureen is naive, an idealistic dreamer, despite everything she has endured. Her mother used to refer to Maureen as "my little mermaid" and she still fancies herself "a damaged mermaid. Sprouting my tail. Claiming the ocean. Saving myself." But Lawkowski describes Maureen's descent into dangerous, reckless behavior in heartbreaking fashion.

Allison is lonely, but feels a kinship with the young woman whose whereabouts were never discovered. Maureen, like Allison, was viewed by society as disposable. That fact, coupled with Tammy's ongoing pain and regret, spurs Allison to assist her by searching for clues about Maureen's fate. Allison is befriended by Dolores, who runs her father's art gallery, and encounters the gossipy Mabel, now a real estate agent. And she is encouraged when she discovers clues to what might have happened to Maureen. Like Maureen, Lawkowski deftly makes Allison an empathetic character -- a woman who is intelligent and accomplished, but has lost her way temporarily.

One Night Gone is a cleverly-plotted mystery. Lawkowski manages to make virtually every character a suspect, injecting red herrings amid actual clues and surprising plot twists that relentlessly compel the story forward. As Maureen makes a series of bad decisions and Allison gets closer to the truth about what happened to her, the story's pace accelerates toward more than one shocking revelation and, ultimately, a jaw-dropping conclusion.

But One Night Gone is much more than an engrossing mystery. It is also a character study. The tales of Maureen and Allison unfold three decades apart but there are engrossing parallels that elevate the story. Both women have encountered challenges that have tested their strength and resolve, but neither has given up. Maureen's unrealistic attempts to find quick but lasting solutions to her problems stand in stark contrast to Allison's realistic assessment of the extent of the damage she did to her career and the embarrassment she brought upon herself with every event archived on the internet in perpetuity. Both women are guilelessly taken in by the unscrupulous persons they let into their lives, and both find themselves in danger as a result. Allison becomes determined to secure justice for Maureen and, in the process, redemption for herself.

Betrayal, deception, and danger are at the heart of Lawkowski's plot, but empowerment, self-reliance, and second chances are the theme of One Night Gone. It is an eloquent, evocative, and impressive debut thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.