BOOK REVIEW: A lost child, a vast, forested mountain area, a parent’s dread. For the Van Laar family, the disappearance of their 13-year-old daughter Barbara in 1975 is a terrible case of déjà vu. Fourteen years previously, their 8-year-old son Bear went missing while out walking and exhaustive searches by officials and local residents proved fruitless.
New York-based and very wealthy, Peter and Alice Van Laar are the owners of a large tract of land in the Adirondack Mountains. The land comprises their summer holiday home, oddly named Self Reliance, a separate educational camp for schoolchildren called Camp Emerson, and a preserve of woodland. The original Van Laar owner, Peter I (the current owner is Peter III), was an early and philanthropic believer in environmental guardianship and a keen follower of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The camp was initiated by Peter I as a means to impart good environmental practices to future generations.
The story of the missing child separates into two timelines, echoing the two siblings. Bear, the product of a marriage of convenience, is a much-loved child and heir – clever, sociable and adventurous. Barbara, the apparent replacement, is not.
By 1975, when Barbara is in trouble at school and her relationship with both parents has irrevocably disintegrated, she asks to join the camp and there is relief all round. For a whole summer, Barbara’s sullen attitude can be contained by the camp authorities.
That is, until the morning her bed is found empty and history repeats itself.
Coincidence reigns. Both children have disappeared at the same time of year, during the annual week-long party thrown by the Van Laars for their closest friends and business associates. There is a surging overlap of long-buried memories of the first search by residents of the nearby township, state troopers and family employees. Circumstantial leads in both cases push investigators first one way then another, mirroring events of earlier. In a gothic turn, we learn that Jacob Sluiter, a convicted serial killer and recent jail escapee, has been seen in the vicinity, as he had been 15 years previously. Could the two cases be connected?
As things unfold, it becomes evident the rules of the Van Laar world are dominated by wealth. Money talks, reputations are vital, false appearances are maintained until they aren’t, and the subject matter splinters into smaller themes – alcoholism, domestic abuse, parental neglect and misogyny.
Multiple characters thread through the story, at times at the forefront, at times pushed to the background. Females are more roundly rendered. We learn the back story of Alice, struggling within her powerless position and resultant mental illness. We meet Judyta, a newly minted police investigator, ambitious to prove her worth in a male-dominated occupation and escape her overbearing father.
Male characters, such as father Peter, and Denny Hayes, the chief investigator, are less sympathetically drawn and seem to serve as representatives of the masculine power base, one that keeps the underprivileged in their place.
Author Liz Moore comes with a reputation, notably for her last novel, Long Bright River, which was listed by Barack Obama as one of his favourite novels of 2020. While this later thriller is strangely gripping, navigating the journey is a rollercoaster ride of numerous characters, themes and timelines. But if a richly peopled and socially critical viewpoint appeals, the ending will reward your perseverance.
