From the author of the internationally bestselling The Lake of Dead Languages comes a gripping novel about madness, motherhood, love, and trust.

When Daphne Marist and her infant daughter, Chloe, pull up the gravel drive to the home of Daphne’s new employer, it feels like they’ve entered a whole new world. Tucked in the Catskills, the stone mansion looks like something out of a fairy tale, its lush landscaping hiding the view of the mental asylum just beyond its border. Daphne secured the live-in position using an assumed name and fake credentials, telling no one that she’s on the run from a controlling husband who has threatened to take her daughter away.

Daphne’s new life is a far cry from the one she had in Westchester where, just months before, she and her husband welcomed little Chloe. From the start, Daphne tries to be a good mother, but she’s plagued by dark moods and intrusive thoughts that convince her she’s capable of harming her own daughter. When Daphne is diagnosed with Post Partum Mood Disorder, her downward spiral feels unstoppable—until she meets Laurel Hobbes.

Laurel, who also has a daughter named Chloe, is everything Daphne isn’t: charismatic, sophisticated, fearless. They immediately form an intense friendship, revealing secrets to one another they thought they’d never share. Soon, they start to look alike, dress alike, and talk alike, their lives mirroring one another in strange and disturbing ways. But Daphne realizes only too late that being friends with Laurel will come at a very shocking price—one that will ultimately lead her to that towering mansion in the Catskills where terrifying, long-hidden truths will finally be revealed…

This book threw me for a loop. Carol Goodman successfully created a world with so many lies and secrets you start questioning everyone even yourself. I was convinced halfway through I knew exactly what was happening and what the truth was….I had very little clue at all. Daphne is a new mother with post Partum mood issues who feels completely lost. She meets Laurel who seems to have it all together, but is hiding problems of her own. Until it becomes too much for Daphne and she takes laurels name and credentials to get a job far away. Until she finds herself somewhere she doesn’t think she belongs…but does she? Is more than Post Partum going on here? Carol Goodman created a truly thrilling tell that you won’t want to put down. Can’t wait to read more from this great author.

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Carol Goodman, also known under the pseudonym Juliet Dark, is an American professor and author of gothic fiction.^[1] She has also written under the pseudonym Lee Carrollwith her husband Lee Slominsky.^[1] Goodman currently serves as a creative writing professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz.^[2]