The Unknown by Riley Sager
Publication Date: August 4, 2026
Summary from Netgalley:
In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again.
Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot.
Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one.
Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island’s previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again.
Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.
ARC provided by Dutton via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I have some mixed feeling about this one. The overall plot of the story was a good one, and kept me interested enough that I wanted to find out what was really going on. But I never quite connected to any of the characters, nor did I really like any of them, which kept me from connecting to the story on any kind of deep level.
Marin was an interesting character. An aspiring actress who is almost ready to give it all up, when the opportunity of a lifetime comes knocking. She is definitely a woman in over her head, but she truly wants to do well. She also seems like a pretty nice person, maybe too nice for Hollywood. She is also undeterred by the goings on and practical, and while she has had some experience with the paranormal in the past, remains sceptical of it. I like how determined she was to get to the bottom of what was really going on.
Daisy is the other character that we get to know fairly well through her diary. But I pretty much decided early on that she was an unreliable narrator. She came across as innocent and naive, but there was something darker underneath that came through her narrative.
The rest of the cast of characters were pretty typical of this genre, and we only get to know them superficially. I didn’t particularly care for any of them and knew that they were all hiding secrets.
The story, especially the mystery of what really happened on the island in 1926, was intriguing. There were a lot of moving parts and many twists that kept you guessing as to what was really happening. I had parts of it figured out pretty quickly, but there were still one or two surprise twists, especially when it came to the motives of the people involved. That said, I never felt like this was a horror story, mostly because the paranormal aspects were pretty light and not as prevalent as the summary suggests. The island setting was pretty creepy though and it fit well with the rest of the story.
Not my favorite by this author, but still an interesting story. If you are looking for an interesting mystery with a dual timeline, certainly give this one a try. If you want a good scare I would suggest looking at one of this author’s earlier books.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 