When their artist father dies, sisters Pia and Jenn Cutter prepare themselves to put him to rest. Instead, they must go on the hunt for his missing body.
Suddenly, a stranger emerges claiming to be the artist’s one and only daughter.
Set against the windswept backdrop of Cape Cod, The Time It Takes to Drown is a literary crime novel about grief, belonging, and the lengths thieves will go to erase a family’s history.
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Publication date: 27/08/2026
ISBN: 978-1-83671-276-3
Imprint: Vanguard Press / Pegasus
Pages: 334
For Pia and Jenn Cutter, Provincetown has always been a place of contradictions.
It was the setting of childhood summers spent with their father, a celebrated local artist whose talent was rivaled only by his devotion to alcohol. It was a place of beauty, creativity, and freedom. It was also a place marked by instability, complicated relationships, and memories neither sister fully escaped.
When their father dies, the sisters return expecting to settle his affairs and honor his memory. Instead, they find themselves confronting a growing series of questions that challenge everything they thought they knew about their family.
Locals begin attempting to erase them from their father’s history. Long-buried tensions rise to the surface. Then an unexpected stranger arrives with a claim that threatens to rewrite their family’s story entirely.
As grief gives way to suspicion, Pia and Jenn discover more messy secrets, more unanswered questions that they must navigate. But how?
Perched on the weather-beaten tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown has long attracted painters, playwrights, poets, novelists, and con artists.
Its narrow streets, historic homes, bustling harbor, and dramatic coastline provide the backdrop for a story where memory and truth are constantly shifting.
In The Time It Takes to Drown, Provincetown is more than a setting. It is a place where history lingers, where relationships span generations, and where the past can erode like sand beneath your feet.
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