With this impressive debut novel, the author has perfectly captured both the time period and the genre's sense of suspense in the opening of this book. The flawless late 1950s lawns of California, the visage shown to the rest of the world, hiding the terror and horror within the private home, and Joyce's disappearance. Indeed, F Scot Fitzgerald told us about a century ago there was no American Dream, and it is never been more true, as the author depicts in the Long, Long Afternoon.