"Saint X," by Alexis Schaitkin

Many readers will remember the sad case of the young American woman, Natalee Ann Holloway, who disappeared while on a high school graduation trip in Aruba in 2005. Her body was never found, and the leading suspect was never convicted; he was, however, convicted of the murder of another young woman in Peru five years later. Alexis Schaitkin’s novel, “Saint X” (Celadon, 2020) does not explicitly refer to that case, and the facts and details in the real-life case and this imaginary case diverge in many ways, but Holloway’s story is clearly the inspiration for this novel. College student Alison Thomas disappears while on a family vacation on a fictional Caribbbean island called Saint X. The novel shuttles back and forth between the story of that vacation and the story of how Alison’s younger sister Claire, only seven years old at the time of the tragedy, spends much of the next many years, well into her adulthood, focusing on -- one might say obsessing about -- her sister’s disappearance. In a huge coincidence, she sees one of the suspects (who has been exonerated by police) in New York City, and becomes fixated on him. Finally she actually meets him, and strangely they develop a sort of friendship. This is a story of the longlasting effects of family tragedies, as well as of the effects of age, gender, and race in every aspect of life. It is a compelling story, compellingly written. Despite the huge danger that the novel will seem exploitative, it does not feel that way; the author tells the story in a very humane way, slowly revealing the complexities of all the characters. There is a resolution which readers may or may not find satisfying, but which in any case brings a kind of closure to this sad, very readable and well written novel.