In Andrew Pyper s haunting first novel， the disappearance of two young girls sets in motion a nightmarish journey into darkness， as a young defense attorney returns to his beleaguered hometown to try a bizarre and macabre murder case. A gothic thriller that will catch you off guard at every turn， Lost Girls is more than a story about a chilling crime and its aftermath; it is an edgy exploration of terrors real， terrors imagined， and the ones that lie somewhere in between.Attorney Bartholomew Christian Crane doesn t belong in the town of Murdoch. And Murdoch， a small city by the shores of Lake St. Christopher， doesn t want him there. Even Crane s client， a teacher accused of murdering two young girls， his own students， doesn t seem to care if Crane gets him off or not. But Crane loves nothing better than turning guilt into innocence， lies into truth， and winning at all costs. His boss s motto for defending a client: Don t just deny， blame someone else. Now Crane will try to do just that--until the case takes an unexpected turn， pulling Crane from the mooring of his big-city smugness and shattering the icy cocoon around his heart.For as Crane begins to piece together a defense for his client， he finds himself being drawn into a bizarre legend at the heart of the town s history--a legend that is slowly coming alive before his eyes. Unnerved by visions he sees on Murdoch s beleaguered streets， by a woman he meets in a seedy strip club， by the ringing of a telephone down the deserted hallway of his run-down motel， Crane is beginning to suspect that what is happening to him is happening for a reason. And that the two lost girls of Murdoch may be intricately connected to the town s shameful history， and to a dark episode in his own long-forgotten past.From its haunting opening to its shocking climax， Lost Girls dares to take us into dangerous territory. At once a classic murder mystery， an intricate legal thriller， and a novel of pure psychological terror， Lost Girls puts a powerful twist on all our expectations and confirms Andrew Pyper s place as one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary fiction.