The Van Laar Family
The Van Laar family's wealth and power in the Adirondacks stems from this industry, which also gives them control over vast stretches of wilderness.
Answer: What is banking / land and timber?
This is the name of the summer camp in the Adirondacks where the novel is set and which the Van Laar family owns.
Answer: What is Camp Emerson?
This is the name of the camp counselor who discovers Barbara's empty bunk at the start of the novel.
Answer: What is Louise (Louise Donnadieu)?
The novel belongs to this genre, blending mystery with literary character study and social commentary.
Answer: What is a literary mystery/thriller?
When Barbara goes missing, the Van Laar family's instinct is to protect this above cooperating fully with investigators.
Answer: What is their reputation / family name?
Bear's real name is this — a formal family name passed down through generations of Van Laar men.
Answer: Who is Peter (Peter Van Laar IV)?
Barbara Van Laar is this age when she disappears from her bunk at the start of the novel.
Answer: What is 13?
This is the name of the novel's junior investigator — one of the first female state troopers in New York — who works the Barbara Van Laar case.
What is Judyta "Judy" Luptack?
The novel explores how families of this social class use money and connections to conceal crimes and control investigations.
Answer: What is the wealthy upper class?
Bear's disappearance was ultimately the result of this — not foul play, but a tragic accident covered up by those loyal to the Van Laars.
Answer: What is an accidental drowning?
This is the name of Barbara's mother, the Van Laar matriarch who relies heavily on prescription pills and alcohol after the trauma of losing her son.
Answer: Who is Alice?
Bear Van Laar was this age when he disappeared in 1961, making his case all the more haunting.
Answer: What is 8 years old?
Louise got her job at Camp Emerson partly through her connection to this person, whom she is dating.
Answer: What is John Paul McLellan Jr.?
The novel is set primarily in this decade, capturing mid-20th century tensions around class, gender, and power in rural America.
Answer: What is the 1970s (1975)?
Bear drowned after Alice fell asleep instead of accompanying him on this activity, which they had planned together.
Answer: What is a boating excursion?
Bear Van Laar disappeared in this specific year, 14 years before Barbara's disappearance kicks off the novel's main plot.
Answer: What is 1961?
Camp Emerson is owned by the Van Laars and employs most residents of this nearby struggling town, giving the family enormous economic leverage over the community.
Answer: What is Shattuck?
This escaped convict, known in local lore as "Slitter," becomes a red herring suspect in Barbara's disappearance due to his ties to the Adirondack wilderness.
Answer: What is Jacob Sluiter?
Liz Moore structures the novel using this narrative technique, weaving together multiple timelines and character perspectives simultaneously.
Answer: What is a nonlinear/multi-perspective narrative?
The Van Laars were able to conceal Bear's death for 14 years by relying on this group of people to help bury the truth.
Answer: What is the local working-class employees/loyalists (specifically Vic Hewitt)?
The Van Laar patriarch — Barbara and Bear's father — is known by this name, the third in a line of men to bear it.
Answer: Who is Peter Van Laar III?
This longtime camp groundskeeper and caretaker of the Van Laar property plays a pivotal role in the cover-up of what happened to Bear.
Answer: What is Vic Hewitt?
Judy Luptack is described as being this age and holding this distinction when she joins the Barbara Van Laar investigation.
Answer: What is 26 years old and the only female investigator on the team?
The conflict between the Van Laars and the surrounding community reflects this broader theme — that entire towns can become economically dependent on, and therefore complicit with, a single powerful family.
Answer: What is class inequality / the corruption of wealth and power?
Barbara's disappearance at the end of the novel is revealed to be fundamentally different from Bear's — rather than tragedy, hers was this.
Answer: What is a deliberate escape (she chose to disappear)?