THE WINTHROP AGREEMENT

Rivkah Milmanovitch arrives at Ellis Island in 1893, pregnant and planning to make a new life with her husband, who had made the trip from Lithuania earlier. But Rivkah can’t find Jacob and instead moves in with a friend from home, Lottie Aarons. With her last name changed to Milman, Rivkah carves out a hardscrabble life, raising her daughter, Mimi, with the help of kindly neighbors. When Mimi is 15, she meets Frederick Winthrop, the sadistic, 30-year-old youngest son of a wealthy family that employs Lottie as a bookkeeper. Though Mimi and Frederick meet only a few times, the teenager becomes pregnant and loses her mother soon after. Not knowing Frederick’s last name, Mimi can't seek help—but then rumors start spreading about Frederick and a young girl and the Winthrop family and Lottie put the pieces together. In exchange for Mimi’s silence, the family gives her a building from which she can operate a clothing shop, an opportunity that launches her on a designing career that brings her security and fulfillment. But Frederick’s worst impulses remain unchecked, and the more Mimi hears about him, the more she becomes concerned that his cruelty could pose a danger. Tonally inconsistent, this novel can't decide what kind of story it wants to be—a thriller about a serial killer, the story of a young woman who makes her way in the world, or a Gilded Age tale of haves and have-nots. The resulting muddle picks up and drops potential throughlines, introducing plot points in brief chapters that reveal too little to be interesting. Characters are inconsistent and underdeveloped, including Rivkah, who is introduced as young and dreamy before immediately being recast into a cold and angry mother with no true depth.