Coram House - Bailey Seybolt

 Coram House - Bailey Seybolt

Pub. Date: April 15, 2025

She read

It is 2010 and Alex, a true crime writer, is hired to ghostwrite the story of abuse during the 1960s at Coram House, a one time orphanage on Lake Champlain in Vermont operated by nuns and priests. Her employer is the attorney who represented former residents in a settlement with the Catholic Church. Her contract gives him total control over what she writes, as well as an NDA. Widowed, and the author of a second novel that led to some disgrace, she moves to Burlington in the middle of a cold, dark winter.  Haunted by the tale of Tommy, a young child supposedly drowned by Sister Cecile and another student, she doggedly investigates that part of the story despite the hostility toward her inquiries. When a murder occurs, and then another, she is convinced they are related to her investigation. Why the silence about Tommy and who is complicit in keeping it quiet? 

Wow!  What a debut novel! Inspired by the true story of abuse at Saint Joseph’s orphanage which operated in Vermont from 1854 to 1974, the book is atmospheric, twisty, and suspenseful. I could not put it down. I liked the writing technique of interspersing the story with testimony of some of the characters during the compensatory trial in the late 1980s. This was a great read.  

Thanks to #NetGalley and @Atriabooks for the DRC. 

*****