The Woman in the Photo

The day after Memorial Day 1889, 20 million tons of water careened downhill to Johnstown, PA, washing away the city, along with 2,000 of its residents. The tragedy occurred when a dam built for the recreation of members of the exclusive South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club broke. This tragedy links Elizabeth Haberlin and Lee Parker. Elizabeth was a member of society's elite in late 19th-century Pennsylvania. Lee and her mother have been abandoned by her father in present-day Los Angeles. Hogan (Two Sisters) alternates between Elizabeth's and Lee's stories. Each woman is 18 years old and coming into her own. Elizabeth struggles with the etiquette of her class, while Lee, who has just learned that she was adopted, searches for information about a relative seen in a photo amidst her birth records. This novel could be an excellent piece of historical fiction if it solely focused on Elizabeth and the Johnstown Flood. The chapters set in the present fall flat and distract from the more compelling sections about the past.