Best known for her short story The Lottery', Shirley Jackson is a fascinating figure whose chilling tales of psychological suspense are still widely read and taught. In this darkly captivating novel, Merrell uses the facts of Jackson's life as a springboard to explore the 1964 disappearance of Paula Weldon, a Bennington College student. Told through the eyes of Rose Nemser - the wife of a graduate student working with Jackson's husband, a Bennington professor - Shirley reimagines the connections between Jackson's volatile marriage and one of the era's great unsolved mysteries.'