You Were Here

March 6, 2017
Abby Walters, the heroine of Sardar’s intricately plotted first novel, moved from Makade, Minn., to Southern California to escape her past, particularly to get rid of a recurring nightmare in which she’s buried alive while repeating a name that means nothing to her: Claire Ballantine. But she can’t escape her nightmares. Fourteen years later, after learning from her mother that Claire was a close friend and neighbor of her grandmother, Abby returns to Makade to seek answers that might explain the hold the dream has over her. In going through her grandmother’s papers, Abby learns that Claire was involved in a love triangle. At her 15-year high school reunion, Abby reconnects with old crush Aidan Mackenzie, who’s now a detective hunting a vicious killer and rapist. Though she’s already attracted to another man, Abby flirts with Aidan and soon finds herself in a love triangle of her own. Sardar keeps the tension high to the very end as she teasingly reveals how the dream resonates with events in Abby’s life. Agent: Lucy Carson, Friedrich Agency.

March 1, 2017
A woman, haunted by terrible dreams, digs into her grandmother's past, uncovering a tragic love triangle and a stunning crime.When 33-year-old Abby Walters, who has been haunted by dreams of being buried alive for years, wakes up with the name Claire Ballantine on her lips, she returns home to Makade, Minnesota, to dig into her family's past. She'd been feeling restless, anyway, and impatient with her screenwriter boyfriend's hesitancy about getting married. It turns out that Claire was Abby's grandmother's neighbor, and Abby's mother says she disappeared one day in 1948, never to be found. As Abby digs further, she discovers evidence of a shocking crime the year Claire went missing. Meanwhile, Abby's childhood crush Aidan Mackenzie is back in Makade after a stint as a St. Paul cop. He's still a cop but was hoping to leave the violence behind. It's not to be: a serial rapist is on the loose, and he seems to be targeting women who look a lot like Abby. Soon Abby and Aidan reconnect, and the sparks are undeniable, but the past is about to intrude on the future with tragic results. The present-day narrative is expertly interwoven with Claire's story, which involves the horrific consequences of an affair gone wrong. Abby's dreams add a layer of creepiness to Aidan's investigation, and because Aidan offers to help her research the past, she gets closer to the rape investigation than she probably should, but Abby is no wilting flower. Sardar's characters are well-developed and her prose is dreamlike, at times reading very much like poetry, making the heartbreaking events of 1948 even more poignant. Readers who find the journey more important than the destination might get more out of this character-driven story, especially since the final revelations, while undeniably horrible, aren't all that surprising. Nonetheless, this deftly executed study of the dark that lies in the human heart is artfully drawn. An impressive if flawed debut with a touch of the otherworldly.

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February 15, 2017

Sardar's debut novel combines psychological suspense with family drama in a story that spans two different times. In the present, Abby Walters is returning to her Minnesota hometown for the first time in years. She's stayed away because of the debilitating nightmares about death and being buried alive that reoccur when she's home. Now Abby thinks she has the beginnings of an explanation for the disturbing dreams so she decides to return for her high school reunion and perhaps finally put the nightmares to rest. But the pieces of her puzzle connect to a woman from the past. In 1948, Eva is a young woman who has fallen in love with a married man. William loves her back, but he's torn about what to do. He cares for his wife and doesn't want to destroy her. The decisions made will have catastrophic consequences for everyone. Sardar's novel is beautifully written, and Eva's story line is particularly intriguing and tragic. But the work does suffer a bit with a few too many plot elements. VERDICT Despite a few flaws, this first novel will appeal to readers of Christina Schwarz and Diane Chamberlain.--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

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