Summary
Penelope heads “home” to Bone Lake, Michigan to stay with her father for the summer while her mom is in Europe on sabbatical. Her goals are to get a job and write a fantastic article to help her get into college. And she’s started one about the impact of an accident at the plastic factory in Bone Lake. The factory closed, and the town has never recovered. Now she wants to find some personal reactions to round out the story.
But no one wants to talk about the accident or the plant. In fact, everyone she talks to utters the same phrase. It’s like a code or something. And there are other weird things going on. Penelope’s dad is missing. He never showed up at the airport to get her. A charred body was found in the woods, and two teens have gone missing, too. Penelope can’t get anyone but her neighbor to take her dad’s absence seriously. But the longer he’s gone, the more suspicious it is for law enforcement. They think maybe her dad has something to hide.
Penny is determined to get at the truth no matter what she discovers – or how dangerous it becomes.
Review
This was a nice surprise. The mystery was great. I was guessing all the way through – were there aliens? Was there something supernatural going on? Was there a reasonable explanation?
I enjoyed Penny and her neighbor, Dex. They made a great team for the investigation. And the town held lots of secrets which kept the story mysterious and kept me turning pages.
I got a kick out of the X-Files references as Dex leaned toward extra-terrestrial explanations and Penny leaned toward realistic ones. The Mulder and Scully references were fun.
I enjoyed this suspenseful story. All of the pieces clicked together into a satisfying ending. (Some language)