Synopsis:
Astrid Johansen swore she would never return to Heron Bay, Washington, where her family spent every summer when she was a child. It was in that idyllic coastal town that her three-year-old sister, Nina, drowned in a reflecting pool seventeen years ago while Astid was charged with watching Nina. Unrelenting guilt has plagued her ever since and kept her away from the place she once loved.
But Astrid can’t ignore her aunt Maude’s urgent plea to come back. Maude claims to have found a typewritten letter that may change everything they have believed about the past.
When Astrid arrives at Maude’s home in Heron Bay, she discovers Maude unconscious. Did she fall? Or was she the victim of an attack? As Maude lingers in a coma, Astrid uncovers alarming evidence that Nina’s tragic death may not have been an accident.
But in a town rife with secrets — and in a family still fractured by grief — who knows the truth?
Astrid’s investigation takes her down a trail of dark memories, lies, and betrayals that shatter her perception of everyone she thought she knew. Including herself.
Dreaming of Water is an engrossing tale of family secrets and lies, as well as redemption and the mutability of memory.
Review:
Author A.J. Banner describes Dreaming of Water as “lyrical, atmospheric, redemptive.” A resident of the Pacific Northwest, Banner set the story there. Specifically, in Heron Bay, Washington, a small town adjacent to that region’s majestic and mystical forests. It’s an area “where a child could wander into the woods and drown in a reflecting pool without an adult around to save her . . . or so we believe.” The setting immediately establishes an ominous, uncertain, and almost dream-like atmosphere against which the action unfolds.
Astrid was just fourteen years old the summer that her three-year-old sister, Nina, drowned in the reflecting pool on the Michaels estate, situated near her Aunt Maude’s home. Her parents, Rose and Bjorn, were attending a party at the Michaels home and Astrid was responsible for taking care of Nina, who they all knew had a tendency to wander off. Astrid believed that Nina was asleep in her bed, but she had instead made her way through the woods to the reflecting pool. When Astrid realized Nina was not in Aunt Maude’s house and went looking for her, she discovered Nina’s lifeless body. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Astrid’s parents divorced two years later, and the family never again visited Heron Bay.
Now Astrid is a thirty-one-year-old, recently divorced documents examiner living in Vallejo, California. Astrid’s father, a professor of conservation biology at Portland University, is remarried and lives in the Oregon woods. Rose, Astrid’s mother, spends her time traveling to escape the past and her grief. She and Astrid rarely speak and haven’t seen each other in years. In addition to the guilt and remorse that have burdened her since the night Nina died, Astrid also blames herself for the demise of her marriage. Her lies and omissions led her husband, Trent, into a serious relationship with Astrid’s best friend, Leona.
Astrid has always been very fond of her Aunt Maude, twelve years older than Astrid’s mother, Rose. A retired librarian, her Victorian home on the edge of the woods at the end of a road that winds toward the sea, is filled with books and surrounded by gardens visible from the large wraparound porch. As the story opens, Astrid arrives in Heron Bay for the first time since that horrible summer. Aunt Maude called and implored her to come for a visit after she discovered a typewritten letter. “The signature is handwritten. The letter will change everything we believe about the past,” Maude tells Astrid, swearing her to secrecy and refusing to reveal the contents of the letter over the telephone. Rather, Aunt Maude insists they must meet in person. “The typewriter is here. The letter is in a safe place.”
But when Astrid arrives at Maude’s home, she finds her aunt unconscious on the floor of her home library with a gaping gash on her forehead. Did she fall? Could she have been pushed? Summoning help reunites Astrid with Conor Burke, her friend from childhood who is now the local sheriff. He had a memorable crush on Astrid, but as a young teenager, she was infatuated with the older Julian Michaels, a twenty-two-year-old student home for the summer who called Astrid “Austen Girl” after he happened upon her reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. She enjoyed discussing books with him, but her fantasies about a relationship with him faded when her family left Heron Bay for good. Now, Julian is a bestselling author residing on nearby San Juan Island as his sixteen-year-old son, Thomas, spends time with his grandparents, the glamorous Beatrice and her wealthy husband, Verne, at their Heron Bay estate where Nina drowned. In addition to assisting his grandmother, Thomas spends a lot of time with Livie Dwight, a snoopy nineteen-year-old gossip who claims she assisted Aunt Maude with various tasks.
Banner effectively incorporates her love of vintage typewriters into the tale. She wrote the first draft of the novel on one of the more than one hundred manual typewriters in her collection, and injects details about their characteristics, required maintenance, and repairs into the mystery. Specifically, with Aunt Maude in a coma and unable to provide answers, Astrid’s investigation into the veracity of the letter encompasses analysis of the typewriter in Aunt Maude’s home office. For instance, once she concludes that the typewriter’s font style and size match those displayed in the letter, she compares the letters on the page with the typewriter’s keys, noting anomalies that could indicate the letter was typed on a different machine, given that every typewriter is unique. To ensure that she described Astrid’s work accurately, Banner consulted with typewriter repair experts. Likewise, her research included educating herself about how forensic examinations of documents are conducted. Since Astrid only traveled to Heron Bay for a short visit, most of the equipment needed to perform a complete analysis and ascertain the authenticity of the letter is back in her California office. She can draw only preliminary conclusions. But are they accurate? Or is Astrid unaware of pertinent facts that would cause her to change her assessment?
And what exactly does the letter mean? The ambiguous message makes several characters potential suspects if Nina was indeed murdered. But who would kill an innocent three-year-old girl? And why? And what secrets is the murderer desperate to keep hidden?
Astrid’s quest to finally learn what really happened to Nina drives the story at a steady pace, as she follows clues and tests out theories, some of which are at odds with her memories of that night. Banner simultaneously depicts the profound impact of the tragedy on Astrid’s life, a fully formed and richly sympathetic character. Her family disintegrated and Astrid was without a support system, but she has accomplished much. She finished her education, established herself in her chosen profession and, for a time, her marriage to Trent was a happy one, even though relationships have always proven problematic for her. But she has never come to terms with Nina’s death, in part because of her mother’s recriminations and rejection. Rose flits from place to place, always running from the past and never willing to have a focused conversation about Nina’s death. Her father is also distant. And Astrid has always second-guessed herself, pondering whether she could have prevented the tragedy. Intellectually, she understands that she was just a fourteen-year-old girl upon whom responsibility for her little sister was too often thrust. But that knowledge does not alleviate her sense that she should have predicted that Nina would wander off and stopped her from doing so. There was some understandable sibling rivalry, especially considering their age difference, but Astrid would never have allowed harm to come to her sister. Over the years, she has felt “as if she herself has been drowning in guilt” and tried to understand “why she often dreamed of wading into the reflecting pool, water rising around her legs. She often woke gasping for air, drenched in sweat. Sometimes, she sensed Nina nearby in the shadows, as if the little girl wanted to speak but could not find the words.” Astrid recalls someone being in the house in addition to the two of them. She heard her mother’s voice, and understood that she had returned home from the party at the Michaels’ estate she attended with Bjorn, but who was she speaking to? What really happened at the party that caused her father to leave abruptly and drive all the way back to Seattle that night? Was it really Julian she saw that evening, crossing through the side garden toward the forest trail?
She dreamed of rising tides lapping at her ankles, pulling her under. She dreamed of running in the woods, calling for Nina but never finding her.
As Astrid’s inquiry proceeds, it becomes apparent that she is in danger from someone intent on preventing her from uncovering the truth. But who is behind the threats? Did that person kill Nina?
The pace of Dreaming of Water is steady and the story replete with surprising, perfectly timed revelations. Banner surrounds Astrid with an eclectic cast of supporting characters and builds a convincing case that several of them have secrets they want to keep hidden. But killing a little girl? Were any of them capable of such a monstrous act? Or was Nina’s death truly an accident brought about through a convergence of events and various characters’ motivations? Banner keeps readers guessing as she gradually demonstrates the duplicity and secrets of several characters and it becomes increasingly evident that Conor still has feelings for Astrid. She cares for him but is still emotionally reeling not just from the details she is learning about that night, but also the recent demise of her marriage. Numerous plot twists and turns advance the compelling and emotionally rich story, and when the truth finally comes to light, most readers will find it quite shocking.
Dreaming of Water is an expertly constructed and clever mystery, but much more. It is also a meditation on the myriad ways in which the overwhelming power of a tragic loss tore apart Astrid’s family, and continued to impact her life throughout her formative years and well into adulthood. Banner compassionately and credibly depicts a woman who is at last ready to confront the truth – whatever it may be – and come to terms with it. It’s a powerful story about the unbreakable bond of siblings, the need for families to grieve together in the wake of loss in order to avoid splintering, and the need to forgive not just others, but also oneself in order to find peace and thrive. The story is not just captivating. It is also both heartbreaking and, ultimately, hopeful. Banner says she strives “to create sympathetic characters, an interesting story, interesting scenes, and a twist or two. . . I don’t really think about what I want readers to take away. . . . Readers will interpret the story based on their own experiences, viewpoints, and expectations. My job is to create the best story I can, to entertain rather than to instruct.” Once again, she has achieved her goals spectacularly.
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