A beautiful girl of 19 disappears from her home after bidding a fateful goodnight to her sweetheart. She is found dead in the Pasquotank River 36 days later. He is convicted TWICE for her murder – but is innocent. So what really happened...? Ella Maud Cropsey, known to her friends and family as Nell, was born in July 1882 in Brooklyn, New York, before the family moved to Elizabeth City in North Carolina. Nell starts seeing Jim Wilcox, son of the local sheriff. They are an odd couple: Nell is beautiful, independent and eager for new experiences; Jim is short, stolid and five years older than Nell, but content with his lot. On the night of November 20, 1901, Jim and other guests are there, calling on Nell, her sister Ollie, and their brother, William. Around 11 p.m., Jim rises and bids the group good-bye, then asks Nell to accompany him to the porch. A few minutes later, Ollie’s suitor Roy Crawford is asked to tell Nell to come inside as he leaves. Moments later, Roy calls back softly that Nell is not on the porch... In Ella Maud, Nicholas Nicastro revisits a haunting mystery that still fascinates a nation a century later. His masterly re-imagining of these tragic events sees beyond the prejudices that destroys families and taints small communities but corrodes civilisation itself. Nicastro’s simple story-telling style, with its kaleidoscopic perspectives, is moving, beautiful and profound. He echoes the footfall of greats like Herman Melville, William Saroyan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Louisa M. Alcott, Harper Lee and Alice Walker. A massive achievement.