Library Journal Best of 2018!
San Diego Book Award 2019 winner for Best Published Mystery/Suspense!
"Thoughtfully rendered." —Vanity Fair
"Chilling...a perfect read." —Bustle
“A beautifully written, unnerving tragedy woven from equal measures of hope and menace.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Heartrending....Readers who relish novels based on true events will be both riveted and disturbed by this retelling of one of America’s most famous abduction cases.” —Library Journal (starred review)
"Fast-moving....T. Greenwood has clearly done her research." —New York Review of Books
“Riveting suspense....Grace touches this dark tale....Greenwood’s story will spellbind readers.” —Publishers Weekly
"Enthralling...Wonderfully researched and written with stirring prose, Rust & Stardust is a gut-wrenching read." —Tulsa Book Review
"Well-written and heartbreaking." —Watertown Daily Times
"Unflinching but compassionate, Greenwood deftly unravels the devastating layers of malice and carelessness that tore Sally from her family, but also the love and perseverance that eventually brought her home.” — Bryn Greenwood, author of the New York Times bestseller All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
“Greenwood’s glowing dark ruby of a novel brilliantly transforms the true crime story that inspired Nabokov’s Lolita. Shatteringly original and eloquently written, Rust and Stardust is a lot about how what we believe to be true can shape or ruin a life, and the bright lure of innocence pitted against the murk of evil. So ferociously suspenseful, I found myself holding my breath, and so gorgeous and so unsettling in all the roads it might have taken, I kept rereading pages.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
"A riveting and thoughtful exploration of how the dark secrets of a terrible crime affect and hurt so many—and how light and hope persist in the face of such horrors. Greenwood writes with such compassion and feeling, and she is such a confident, skillful storyteller, that you'll stay up late to find out the fates of her memorable, beautiful characters." —Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17
"A harrowing, ripped-from-the-headlines story of lives altered in the blink of an eye, once again proving her eloquence and dexterity as an author.” —Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
"A lyrical and haunting meditation on family, love, and survival, this novel—and Sally Horner—stayed with me long after I turned the last page." —Jillian Cantor, author of Margot
"Greenwood is unmatched in her innate ability to weave lush, poetic language into a riveting story that hooks the reader from page one." —Amy Hatvany, author of Best Kept Secret, and It Happens All the Time
Greenwood reimagines the real-life abduction and subsequent captivity of young Sally Horner, which began in 1948 and ended in early 1950. Narrator Thérèse Plummer's striking characterizations and focused tone immerse listeners in the rapidly changing characters and settings. Although the subject matter is disturbing, Greenwood's stylistic choices and Plummer's steadfast narration are measures of respect for the listener and the victim, providing both informative and imaginative details to enhance a story that is vivid but not overly graphic. This audio is ideal for fans of true crime and Nabokov's LOLITA, which was inspired by Sally's story. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Greenwood reimagines the real-life abduction and subsequent captivity of young Sally Horner, which began in 1948 and ended in early 1950. Narrator Thérèse Plummer's striking characterizations and focused tone immerse listeners in the rapidly changing characters and settings. Although the subject matter is disturbing, Greenwood's stylistic choices and Plummer's steadfast narration are measures of respect for the listener and the victim, providing both informative and imaginative details to enhance a story that is vivid but not overly graphic. This audio is ideal for fans of true crime and Nabokov's LOLITA, which was inspired by Sally's story. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-05-28
A fictional account of the real-life 1940s kidnapping that inspired Lolita.On a dare, 11-year-old Sally Horner tries to steal a composition notebook from Woolworth's one afternoon after school. A man at the lunch counter sees her and poses as an FBI agent. Spinning an elaborate story of a court date and house arrest, the man—who goes by Mr. Warner—tells Sally to meet him the next day after school. He's prepared a cover story for Sally's invalid mother and heavily pregnant sister; Sally is to ask permission to go on a family vacation with a friend. So while Sally believes she's being taken into custody and her family believes she's headed to the seashore, she is actually commencing a yearslong odyssey across the United States with a sex offender, whose real name is Frank La Salle. Greenwood (The Golden Hour, 2017, etc.) begins the novel by alternating between the perspectives of Sally and her mother and gradually adds in more narrators as the manhunt for Sally expands, from a brother-in-law playing amateur sleuth to a schoolteacher who suspects that something is terribly wrong with the new girl in her classroom. According to the author's note, reading Sally Horner's story in the papers may have been the catalyst Nabokov needed to keep the manuscript of Lolita from being relegated to the bonfire. Greenwood's stated desire is to rescue Horner herself from being "just a footnote to someone else's story." It's true that Sally's world comes vividly to life. But the book is absolutely stuffed with detail and scenes that don't move the plot forward, and what should be a breath-holding suspense novel requires a great deal of effort to move through.An overlong journey through a stranger-than-fiction life.
