Rust & Stardust

In this fictionalized heartrending account of the 1948 abduction of Sally Horner, the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Greenwood (The Golden Hour) draws on meticulous research of Sally's ordeal. Eleven-year-old Sally yearns to be included in a secret girls' club and reluctantly agrees to shoplift for initiation. But recent ex-con Frank LaSalle catches her and pretends he's an FBI agent, taking her into custody to save her from jail. Using lies and deception, LaSalle lures Sally first to Atlantic City, then stays one step ahead of police by continually moving around the country, posing as her widowed father. Sally can hardly remember the different names she must use, and because of Frank's treachery, she doesn't know if her mother, Ella, even wants her to return. LaSalle uses Sally as his sexual slave, threatening lifelong misery if she ever tells a soul. Each time Sally finds an ally—Sister Mary Katherine from school, Lena from the traveling circus, or Ruth from the trailer park—they vanish. Sally can trust no one.