Bailey Seybolt’s debut thriller “Coram House” is a masterclass in atmospheric storytelling that combines the best elements of true crime, historical fiction, and psychological suspense. Set against the bone-chilling backdrop of a Vermont winter, this novel delivers a meticulously constructed mystery that probes the darkest corners of institutional abuse while examining how trauma ripples through generations.
Like the frozen lake at its center, “Coram House” appears deceptively solid at first glance. But as protagonist Alex Kelley scratches at its surface, we discover treacherous depths beneath, where the weight of history threatens to pull everyone down into the cold darkness. Seybolt has crafted a thriller that manages to be both timely in its examination of institutional accountability and timeless in its exploration of grief, justice, and the human capacity for both cruelty and compassion.
The Harrowing Premise
In the summer of 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes from Coram House, a Catholic orphanage perched on the shores of Lake Champlain. Some whisper that he drowned during a swimming lesson, others that he ran away. The official record shows barely a trace that he ever existed.
Fifty years later, true crime writer Alex Kelley arrives in Burlington, Vermont to ghostwrite a book about the orphanage’s dark history. Still reeling from the death of her husband Adam and the spectacular failure of her previous book, Alex views this as both a professional lifeline and a chance to start fresh. Her benefactor is Alan Stedsan, the attorney who represented many of Coram House’s former residents in a settlement case against the Catholic Church decades earlier.
As Alex delves into transcripts and photographs, she becomes fixated on Tommy’s disappearance, seeing in it both a compelling mystery and a chance at redemption. Her investigation takes a shocking turn when she discovers the body of an elderly woman in the woods. The victim, she soon learns, was Sister Cecile—once a feared nun at Coram House, who’d been living quietly in town under her birth name, Jeannette Leroy.
Excavating Buried Truths
Seybolt’s greatest achievement in “Coram House” is her ability to evoke the stifling insularity of small-town Vermont in winter. The setting becomes a character unto itself—beautiful yet forbidding, with layers of snow concealing ugly truths beneath. The author captures Burlington’s contradictions: its progressive college town atmosphere juxtaposed against centuries of entrenched power structures and carefully preserved secrets.
The novel excels in its exploration of how institutions protect themselves at the expense of vulnerable individuals. Through meticulous research into depositions, yellowed photographs, and conflicting testimonies, Alex gradually pieces together not just what happened to Tommy, but how the community conspired to bury the truth. Seybolt’s depiction of the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse allegations feels authentic and damning without descending into caricature.
Where the novel truly shines is in its portrayal of memory’s fallibility. Different characters recall the same events in wildly divergent ways, leading to a narrative that constantly shifts beneath the reader’s feet. In one particularly effective device, Seybolt intersperses the main narrative with transcript excerpts, allowing us to hear directly from survivors in their own words. These fragments create a haunting chorus that enriches and complicates the central mystery.
A Protagonist Haunted by Failure
Alex Kelley emerges as a compelling, flawed protagonist whose own trauma mirrors the stories she investigates. Still grieving her husband and reeling from professional disgrace, she’s determined to redeem herself by uncovering Tommy’s fate. Her previous book wrongfully implicated an innocent man in his sister’s murder, leading to tragic consequences—a mistake that heightens her desperation to get this story right.
Seybolt wisely avoids the cliché of the hard-drinking, cynical investigator, instead giving us a protagonist whose wounds are still fresh and whose self-doubts feel achingly genuine. Alex’s growing obsession with Tommy’s case becomes a way for her to process her own losses, creating emotional stakes that transcend the typical procedural thriller.
The supporting cast is equally well-drawn. Most notable is Officer Russell Parker, whose initial skepticism about Alex’s theories gradually transforms into something more complex. The relationship between these two damaged souls provides the novel’s emotional center, with their interactions revealing how grief can both isolate and connect people.
Masterful Pacing and Structure
“Coram House” demonstrates impressive structural control for a debut novel. Seybolt expertly balances multiple timelines—Tommy’s disappearance in 1968, the legal case in the late 1980s, and Alex’s present-day investigation—without ever losing the narrative thread. The novel’s pacing is particularly remarkable, starting as a slow burn that accelerates into a breathless final act on the frozen lake.
The author excels at creating tension through atmosphere rather than relying solely on plot twists. Sequences where Alex explores the abandoned Coram House or ventures onto the ice are suffused with dread, even when nothing overtly threatening occurs. When violence does erupt, it feels both shocking and inevitable—the natural culmination of decades of buried truths.
Some of the most effective moments come through small details: the way the snow “squeaks underfoot, loose and dry as sand“; how the gravestones “glow white on the black grass so they look like they’re floating“; the dead woman’s “skin has the bluish tinge of someone in a fairy tale, frozen by the ice queen.” These sensory flourishes elevate the prose above typical genre fare.
Areas for Growth
Despite its strengths, “Coram House” occasionally stumbles. The connection between the historical crime and present-day murders, while cleverly constructed, relies on coincidences that strain credulity. Similarly, certain characters’ motivations—particularly Bill Campbell’s decades-long scheme—feel somewhat underdeveloped.
The novel’s ambitious themes sometimes lead to didactic passages where Seybolt spells out her message rather than trusting readers to draw their own conclusions. This is particularly noticeable in discussions about institutional responsibility and justice. Additionally, the romantic tension between Alex and Officer Parker, while compelling, occasionally feels rushed given the compressed timeframe.
Some readers might find the conclusion overly tidy in its resolution of complex ethical questions. The novel raises profound issues about vigilante justice, institutional accountability, and whether certain crimes can ever be truly forgiven—then settles for answers that, while emotionally satisfying, don’t fully engage with the moral ambiguities established earlier.
A Promising Literary Voice
Bailey Seybolt announces herself as a formidable new voice in literary suspense with “Coram House.” The novel stands alongside works like Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects” and Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series in its exploration of how past traumas shape present violence.
What distinguishes Seybolt’s approach is her unflinching compassion for both victims and perpetrators. Even the most monstrous characters are granted moments of humanity that complicate our moral judgments. This nuanced portrayal elevates “Coram House” above simplistic revenge narratives to explore the messy, painful ways humans process generational trauma.
Final Verdict: A Haunting Winter’s Read
“Coram House” is a remarkable debut that announces Bailey Seybolt as a talent to watch in the psychological thriller genre. While it occasionally sacrifices subtlety for dramatic impact, the novel succeeds brilliantly in its core ambitions: creating an atmospheric mystery that keeps readers guessing while delivering emotional and thematic resonance.
For readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries like those of Kate Atkinson, Laura Lippman, or Tana French, “Coram House” offers similar pleasures—complex characters reckoning with the past in a vividly rendered setting. The novel is particularly recommended for fans of cold-case investigations and stories exploring institutional abuse.
At once a gripping whodunit, a meditation on grief, and an examination of how communities bury uncomfortable truths, “Coram House” lingers in the mind like footprints in fresh snow—distinct and haunting until the inevitable thaw forces us to confront what lies beneath.