I've read and reviewed one of Jaime Jo Wright's novels before, 'The Vanishing at Castle Moreau,' and it's clear from this one that she's working if not to a formula then to a template, because this has many similarities to that one, even if it goes in different directions with a very different twist.

As with that previous book, which was her tenth, there are three stories in play here. Two of them are clearly distinct within the book because they're set in different time periods, albeit the same place, which is Kipper's Grove, Wisconsin this time out. Then there's a third overriding story which the protagonists of both those stories are trying to figure out without the benefit that we have of seeing both of them doing that. I was able to figure out some of that third story in advance here, but fell short of all of it. It wraps up nicely.

The first story is set in 1915, where Greta Mercy sees a baby hurled from a box seat at the Barlowe Theater. She's a poor girl, who works but has four younger brothers to take care of because their parents died two years earlier and their eldest brother fell from scaffolding during the very same theater's construction. To suggest that she's struggling is understating the case but she's able to attend the theater because of a friend, Eleanor Boyd, who is not remotely a poor girl. The late Mrs. Mercy was a maid in the Boyd household, so Greta grew up with Eleanor and they're fast friends.

Now, if it was that simple, then this would merely be a historical story, playing with the differences of class and status a century and change ago. Greta and Eleanor are clearly not of the same social stratum and they really shouldn't be associating. When the former sees the baby fall, she leaps to her feet and exclaims, which interrupts the performance, surely understandable except that, after the chaos calms, nobody can locate a baby, mangled or not, and that prompts Rufus Barlowe, who owns Kipper's Grove, to sue her for substantial damages. Given that she can't afford rent, that's a surefire way to shift her and her brothers into Grove House, the local poorhouse.

What's more, she continues to be a thorn in Mr. Barlowe's side, because, in the face of his financial assault, her brother Leo, along with two similarly ne'er-do-well friends, breaks into the theater in a last ditch attempt to find the missing baby, only to vanish from the face of the earth. There's some attempt to find them, but they're poor boys and not well-regarded, so the search ends quickly. The result of that is that Greta, in turn, searches for them and, well, read this for answers.

The second story is set in the present day and led by Kit Boyd, part of the same family as Eleanor but adopted into it. She's a sort of sidekick to Madison Farrington, a historical activist who takes a pride in skuppering her grandfather's plans. The Barlowes are still around, but it's Al Farrington who owns much of Kipper's Grove now and he wants to modernise everything. His plan is to knock down the Old Town, including the historic Barlowe Theater, and build apartments. Madison wants all that to remain, so invites a ghosthunting TV show, 'The Psychic and the Skeptic', to investigate the theater.

Again, if it was that simple, then this would be a drama pitting a couple of members of one family against each other for control of Kipper's Grove. Of course, it isn't. During the initial walkthrough, Madison goes missing, inexplicably, and that prompts a huge search that turns up nothing. It's like she vanished into thin air, just like Leo and his friends a century earlier, but she's not only living in our more concerned present, she's also rich and powerful and thus far more important to find.

Of course, Kit plays a large part in that search, in much the same way that Greta did in the earlier one for the lost boys of the title, but she also finds herself up against it, albeit in different ways. In the present, the poorhouse has become a food pantry serving those in need and Kit is involved in running it. So, when it's vandalised, destroying most of the produce about to be distributed, that could be construed as an attack on her. When someone loosens the nuts on a wheel on her car and causes her to crash off the road, there's no other way to see it.

In both stories, that means that the leading lady, in search not only of the missing but the truth as to why that's needed, is clearly opposed by powerful forces who don't want the missing found and the truth exposed. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to figure out why before they do, aided, of course, by the fact that we can see both investigations.

As in 'The Vanishing at Castle Moreau', this juggles the two stories together capably and adds the overriding story seamlessly. Wright clearly plots carefully to ensure that the contemporary story moves forward at the same pace as the historical one, so that we don't get too far ahead of what she wants us to figure out. She also provides a different tone for each era, which works very well. Back in 1915, the tone is formal, examining class mostly from a working class girl's perspective, so subservience and lack of power, which is blatantly wielded in the hands of certain fortunate souls. Fast forward to the present day, everything is looser and freer, the exercise of power quieter and easier to oppose, even if it's just as hard to accomplish anything.

I think it's fair to say that much of the success relies on us liking both the leads, which I did. Greta never feels out of place in 1915, but she does hint at the future and we likely care all the more for her because of that. Eleanor and her brother Oscar are certainly progressive for their time, so we appreciate them. Everyone else is varying degrees of horrible, which could but doesn't wear this story down. Kit is thoroughly likable, both for what she is and what she isn't. Those around her are far more varied in whether we like them or not, which makes the modern story deeper.

And so I enjoyed this a lot. It doesn't have the punch of the previous book, whose twist was acutely impactful, but it does have a punch and it raises worthy issues. If I had a problem with it, it was the fact that a particular supporting character was clearly gay without the author apparently noticing. Everything about him screams that he's gay, down to mannerisms and phrases, but Wright writes him as a straight man who leads bible study classes. That seems really odd to me, but I saw him as poorly closeted and so not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

If you like gothics but wish they were more contemporary, then Wright's books would seem to be a gimme for you. They do both, in parallel stories, and overlay something deeper. Her prose is easy to read but she's able to tackle a number of issues without complicating it. Her characters are mostly worthy, the twin story approach restricting the opportunity of some supporting characters to be as developed as others. And her twists are impressive. She hasn't completely fooled me yet, but she's kept me guessing both times for a long time and still sprung things on me that I didn't see. She's a prolific writer in this niche and she seems to be owning it. If this is your thing, leap at her books. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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