Killingly interested me as a reader of historical fiction and mysteries and thrillers. Based on a true disappearance of a Mount Holyoke student in 1897, this story begins with the introduction of several important characters and hastens to the disappearance of Bertha Mellish. 

While I appreciate the story that was being told here, this novel was so unevenly paced and overly drawn out. If it had been significantly shorter, that would have greatly increased the tension. Beutner speaks to many social issues of the time without hitting the reader over the head, which I did enjoy. I was hoping for an author's note explaining how much of the story was fiction and how much was grounded in facts from the case. That would have helped justify the extremely slow and uneven pacing, but alas that wasn't what I found at the end. 

Overall, I think this is a good fit for readers of true crime and historical fiction.