Book Description
In 1986, a child disappeared. Nearly forty years later, a tip line rings.
It’s been almost four decades since Edie Marshall’s little brother, Charlie, vanished on his walk home from day camp. After the case went cold, Edie—who had once dreamed of pursuing a life beyond the confines of her small Vermont town—never left, her dreams disappearing right along with Charlie. In her fifties now, she teaches at her old high school and has returned to her childhood home to care for her ailing mother.
When the long-dormant tip line set up for Charlie rings for the first time in years, Edie assumes it’s a wrong number—but on the other end is Jericho Jenkins, the only person of interest ever identified in the investigation. Jericho believes he’s found something of Charlie’s on his property, and with this news, all the pain and uncertainty of that summer rushes back to Edie, including vivid memories of her best friend, Trill: their shared secrets and the devastating lie Edie told that could have changed everything.
Now Jericho is under suspicion again, Trill is coming home, and her mother’s hope is renewed. Edie’s in the same place with the same people as when Charlie first vanished, but somehow everything is different now, and maybe this time they can discover the truth.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Everything Has Happened by T. Greenwood delves into a mystery surrounding a missing child.
The plot begins with the family’s tip line ringing after forty years. It’s been almost four decades since Edie Marshall’s little brother, Charlie, who vanished on his walk home in 1986. Fast forward to the present, in 2023, when Edie, Charlie’s older sister, has returned to her childhood home to take care of her mother and is now the teacher at her old high school. She answers the tip line and realizes the call is from Jericho, the brother of her estranged best friend and the only person of interest ever identified. He thinks he has found something of Charlie’s on his property.
Edie’s dreams were put on hold after Charlie disappeared. But with the phone call she must now confront the past. Things seem to be going in a repeat direction after Jericho once again falls under suspicion and Edie’s childhood friend Trill returns home. What peaks readers interest are the dual timelines told between the 1980s and 2023.
The story delves into buried truths, forbidden young love, and guilt over what happened. The mystery will keep readers turning the pages.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Tammy Greenwood: Several years ago, I listened to a podcast about Jacob Wetterling, a little boy who went missing in Minnesota in the 1980s. One of the episodes was dedicated to the man who had been a person of interest, a music teacher who lived with his mother, near where Jacob disappeared. He was an innocent man, but his life was destroyed by the accusations; he became a pariah in his community. I wanted to explore what happens in the aftermath of an innocent man being suspected of a horrible crime. In the same podcast, Jacob’s parents talked about the tip line phone they had – and the idea of living with such a live wire in one’s home really haunted me. And this was where the first scene came from – a tip line rings after forty years, and on the other end of the line is the man who was wrongly accused.
I also wanted to set a novel in the 1980s. As a Gen X reader, I haven’t read many books that capture what it was like to be a teen in the 80s. I wanted to lean into that nostalgia. Writing, for me, often arises from a desire to revisit places and times in my life.
Lastly, I wanted to tell the story of a young woman’s coming of age in a small town. A girl who is ready to spread her wings only to have all those wild dreams squashed. And that is where we meet Edie – almost forty years after the disappearance of her brother Charlie – as stuck as she was at eighteen years old.
EC: Did you want to get across that a missing person is harder on the family than someone who has been killed?
TG: There is a purgatorial aspect to the lives of these characters. Their home is a virtual time capsule. The tip line phone remains in the family room. Bonnie, the missing boy’s mother, has Alzheimer’s and still believes that Charlie will still walk through the door one day. And Edie, Charlie’s sister, is paralyzed in a life she never chose for herself.
EC: Also, it seems there is a lot of publicity in the beginning but then the world moves on except for the family. What emotions do you want to have the readers understand that the family goes through?
TG: I think the hardest thing about a cold case is that attention spans are short. Initially everyone is actively engaged in the search, attentive to the family’s needs, eager to help. But as time passes, hope and interest both wanes. But for the family the pain lingers. Forever.
EC: What role did Charlie’s disappearance play in the story?
TG: Charlie’s disappearance is the central mystery of the story. It is the question which drives the plot forward. It is a cold case story until the former suspect discovers evidence on his property which opens the case back up.
The novel is told in a dual timeline, where we follow the new leads and then dip back into the events leading up to Charlie’s disappearance.
EC: How would you describe Charlie?
TG: Charlie is a sensitive and inquisitive little boy. He is bright and obsessed with anything to do with space. He adores his older sister and is worried about what will happen to him when she goes off to college.
EC: How would you describe Evie?
TG: Evie is, like so many teens, yearning for what comes next. She’s stuck in a small town; stuck with a boyfriend she really doesn’t love. When Trill moves to town, this world cracks open for her, and suddenly she sees all the different lives she could have. She becomes fixated on going to Smith College instead of the state school in town. And Trill also awakens her sexuality in a way that Nathan simply has not.
EC: How would you describe Trill?
TG: Trill, to Edie, is magical. She lives with her herbalist mother and artist brother on a former commune. She has been living in New York City with her father for the last ten years or so. She’s street savvy and cultured. She’s obsessed with film and wants to be a filmmaker when she grows up.
EC: How would you describe Nathan?
TG: Nathan is Edie’s next-door neighbor – more brother than boyfriend. He’s a good kid. An altar boy at their Catholic church. He works for his dad’s construction company and aspires to take over one day. He loves Edie, or the idea of Edie, anyway. His plans for their future together are clear and immutable.
EC: Can you compare the relationship between Trill and Evie with Nathan and Evie?
TG: Edie likens Nathan to a comfortable pair of slippers. He’s predictable, comfortable, safe. Trill is the exact opposite. She challenges Edie. She is unknowable in some ways. Her life and history are exotic to Edie. She represents everything beyond the confines of this small Vermont town.
But Trill also really sees Edie. And she loves her for who she is, not who she wants her to be.
EC: What was the role of Sylvia Path in the story?
TG: Edie is obsessed with Sylvia Plath. She has read all her journals and letters and poems. She identifies with Plath’s hunger and yearning. With her rage and feelings of paralysis. Trill gets this about Edie in a way that no one else has, and she arranges for the two to take a “Syl-grimage” to all of Sylvia’s haunts, including her old dorm room at Smith. I made a similar Syl-grimage myself several years ago. I was a Plath girl in high school too.
EC: Next book?
TG: I am almost finished with the first draft of a new novel – but I am not talking about it yet.
THANK YOU!!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
