“Multi-layered mysteries unfold with taut precision and suspense as Connelly walks a tightrope between past and present, coercion and consent, redemption and revenge. What Was Lost is a provocative spin on a classic theme—the seductive power of a charismatic mentor. Told with deft characterizations, a shrewd eye for detail and emotional complexity, no one is let off the hook—-not even the heroine—in this uncompromising novel.”
—Chirlane McCray, Former first lady of New York City, writer, editor and activist

“Stunningly written, unerringly human, and deeply felt, Melissa Connelly's What Was Lost is everything I yearn for in a novel, a story about people that I love in all of their flawed messiness, trying to make sense of and move through the murk and ache of their pasts, to discover and assert who and what else they might be.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight, Want and Hold Still