Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
This "beautifully written, thoughtful page-turner" (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists) set in Atlantic City blends noir suspense, a missing persons mystery, and female friendship into a haunting, literary page-turner, as two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer when mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.
Summer has come to Atlantic City, but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does lie hidden in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel. Only one person knows they're there.
Meanwhile, Clara, a struggling boardwalk psychic, gives tarot readings to make ends meet-until she begins experiencing disturbing visions that feel all too real. As reports of missing women spread through town, Clara suspects her clairvoyance may be tied to the growing danger. When she meets Lily, a former Soho art gallery assistant now working at a nearly abandoned casino spa while grappling with personal loss, the two form an uneasy bond. Together, they begin to uncover a pattern-but getting too close to the truth may put them directly in harm's way.
This "heartbreaking…riveting thriller" (Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Tinkers) explores the intersection of womanhood, power, violence, and survival, as two women confront buried truths and risk everything to stop a pattern of disappearance before it claims another victim. Caitlin Mullen earned a BA in English and creative writing from Colgate University, an MA in English from NYU, and an MFA in fiction from Stony Brook University. While at Stony Brook, she taught undergraduate creative writing, served as an editor and contributing writer for The Southampton Review, and worked as a bookseller at WORD in Greenpoint. She grew up in upstate New York and the Jersey Shore and currently lives in Brooklyn. Please See Us is her debut novel. "A team of compelling narrators tells the story of women murdered and forgotten in seedy Atlantic City. Narrator Hillary Huber delivers the gut-wrenching points of view of a series of Jane Does before and after their murders. Among the living characters, Dara Rosenberg gives voice to Clara, a teenage boardwalk psychic who desperately wants to escape the "dates" her aunt sets up for her, all while being tormented by visions of women covered in flies and mud. Piper Goodeve portrays Lily, a woman who has returned to Atlantic City after a tragic betrayal. Goodeve's and Rosenberg's emotional performances make it very difficult not to become fully invested in the well-being of the characters in this Edgar Award-winning title."
