Publisher's Weekly Review
Tully's first novel, an intricate read-it-in-one-sitting mystery-cum-family saga, spans a hundred years, two continents, and two world wars. In Munich on German Unity Day in 1990, septuagenarian Martha Wiesberg receives a letter that was trapped behind the Berlin Wall for more than four decades. The words of her long-dead twin brother triggers events that lead to her sudden disappearance. In 2017, Maya Wiesberg, a reclusive Munich independent bookstore owner, learns that the body of her beloved grandmother, Martha, has been unearthed in an upstate New York forest preserve. Maya drops everything to investigate the mysterious death. She reserves a room at a resort hotel that lies amid the splendor of that New York forest, where Martha undoubtedly spent her last days. Told from the point of view of three central characters-and including its own fairy tale-this is a story about murder, greed, love (won then lost), and, above all, intrigue. Readers will be eager to see what Tully, who has worked in film and TV for many years, comes up with next. Agent: Anna Soler Pontas, Pontas Literary Agency (Spain). (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
At the age of 16, Maya left Germany to travel to America. Before boarding the plane, her grandmother whispered into her ear, Do what I could not do. Maya believes that her grandmother wants her to travel, as she never did. Shortly after her departure for the U.S., her grandmother disappeared and is never seen again. Now, 27 years later, her grandmother's body has been found at a resort in upstate New York. Maya leaves everything to travel to the resort and discover what her grandmother was doing there, and the mystery behind her death. The narrative travels back and forth in time, from Nazi Germany to the present day, though debut-author Tully doesn't always handle the transition very smoothly. The segments taking place in the past, during the rise of the Third Reich, may be troubling, but they are the most descriptive and interesting part of the story, while the second part of the narrative, which pertains to murder and the uncovering of secrets, seems to drag at times.--Milone Hill, Nanci Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
[DEBUT] Spanning two world wars and two continents, this first novel revolves around Maya Wiesberg and her grandmother Martha. The book opens in 1990, a year after the Berlin Wall has come down and the two Germanys reunited. Martha receives a letter dated December 27, 1944, that she is frightened to open and that leads to her disappearance. Flashback to 1938, when Martha's twin brother and mother have become avid followers of Adolf Hitler. Martha, however, is more like her deceased father, with whom she shared a love of forbidden books. In 2017, Maya, a Munich bookseller, learns that her grandmother's remains have been found in upstate New York; she travels to Shadow Lake to discover what she can about why Martha was in New York and what happened to her there. Verdict The book's promotional materials recommend it to fans of Kate Morton, but those readers, expecting a story that is psychologically suspenseful, even disturbing, will be disappointed. Tully's novel is a slow read, with too many side stories that are never fully developed. It tries to be too much-romance, suspense, and mystery-while never really succeeding at being any of those things.-Nanci Milone Hill, M.G. Parker Memorial Lib., Dracut, MA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
