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Even in late spring, nights in Maine can be cool.
On one night in June of 1986, it was cold enough in the woods near Bangor that Kathryn Campbell and her friends built a campfire. They had gathered to celebrate their graduation from high school. Someone brought a guitar. Plastic cups of vodka and orange juice were passed around. The eveningwas just heating up when Kathryn’s best friend, Jennifer Pelletier, stood up, stretched, and said goodbye. She walked into the darkness of the woods and disappeared. Forever.
Critics describe Desire Lines (William Morrow, 1999) as a suspenseful, emotionally compelling novel that examines the nature of loss, friendship, and home. It is the story of how two women lose their way at the beginning of their lives and what it will take for one of them to find out why.
Ten years after Jennifer’s unexplained disappearance, Kathryn is a grad-school dropout living in Virginia, stuck in a dead-end writing job and marriage. She has few close friends; most people have learned not to depend on her. When she decides to leave her husband, she ships her boxes to her mother’s house in Bangor. She has nowhere else to go.
When Kathryn returns home, her former classmates are preparing for their ten-year reunion. Old questions about graduation night surface. Jennifer begins to dominate Kathryn’s life, just as she did in high school. Enigmatic and troubled, Jennifer had always depended on Kathryn’s devotion and asked for sacrifices. A decade after Jennifer walked into the woods alone, Kathryn decides that she must follow her friend’s lead, one last time.
Involving herself in the daily rhythms of small-town life, Kathryn begins an investigation into her past. She renews contacts with old friends and teachers, using her skills as a journalist to reconstruct the life that she and Jennifer shared. Kathryn knows that she must examine what she knew about her friend, and what she didn’t. She must decide what she is willing to risk to know the truth. She must decide what her own future is worth.
Kline researched dozens of missing persons cases around the country, interviewing police detectives, journalists, forensic scientists, and psychologists in order to complete Desire Lines. Kline’s thorough research combined with her emotional acuity results in a moving novel, a story that will leave readers with a fuller understanding of both the power and obligations of memory.