70 pages • 2-hour read
Long Time Gone
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of substance use, addiction, death by suicide, and graphic violence.
The Impact of Buried Truth on Identity
When Sloan first meets James and learns that she could find her birth parents through an ancestry website, she is uninterested. Only when she learns about Preston and Annabelle’s disappearance does she become “wholly consumed with the mystery of what happened to her birth parents, and how baby Charlotte ended up as Sloan Hastings” (41). Though Sloan is a central part of the investigation, her interest is largely from the forensic side—she is more interested in solving the mystery than discovering new information about herself and her biological family. Nonetheless, Sloan develops an interest in the Margolis family, and Annabelle in particular, that deepens the narrative’s exploration of the effects of this long-held secret on her identity, as she reflects on how she came to be the person she is in the novel.
At first, Sloan’s interest in the mystery reflects her profession, and she approaches it with objectivity, but as she connects with the Margolis family, the source of her interest begins to shift. Sloan’s first connection to the real-life Margolis family is Nora, who quickly befriends Sloan. Nora was close with Annabelle, and she provides Sloan with an opportunity to learn about her birth mother. Initially, Sloan struggles to “find room in her mind for another parent figure” before discovering that “somehow Annabelle Margolis had taken root somewhere in her thoughts” (112). Annabelle presents a facet of Sloan’s identity that she had never considered, since she never thought about her biological parents. Nora bridges Sloan’s professional distance by humanizing Annabelle, telling Sloan about Annabelle’s love for Charlotte, her struggle within the Margolis family, and her interest in photography. By making Annabelle into a real person for Sloan, Nora entrenches Sloan in the Margolis family drama, mixing Sloan’s personal questions about her identity with her professional desire to solve the crime of her parents’ murder. Sloan’s quest to solve the mystery blends with a sudden interest in this previously unexplored aspect of her identity.
In the climax of the novel, however, Sloan relies on her skills and interests to solve the mystery, highlighting the fact that despite this new information, her identity remains rooted in her individual self, rather than anything she inherited from Annabelle or Preston. Photography and parental love do not save Sloan; her interest in CrossFit and her medical studies do. When John approaches Sloan after her dissertation, he offers her a job with the FBI based on the merits of her investigation, not her connection to a powerful, wealthy family. In addition, Sloan thinks, “The offer was everything [she] had hoped to do” (344), reaffirming the dream she had before ever considering who her birth parents were. Though Sloan’s connection to Annabelle and Preston opens up new exploration of her identity, her core self remains consistent. Through her journey, the novel explores how identity intersects with family as she uncovers her roots, but it also affirms Sloan’s core identity, which remains intact despite the revelations about the buried secrets in her past.
The Problematic Ethics of the Profit-Driven Media
Once Sloan learns of her birth parents’ disappearance, she also learns how the media swarmed Cedar Creek and the Margolis family. Later in the novel, Reid notes, “The media will twist your words and statement to match whatever narrative they hope to sell” (271), emphasizing how the media is a business like any other. The motivation of individual journalists may vary, but the overarching purpose of the news is to get the first jump on a story and exploit that story, as well as the people involved, to maximize profits. When Annabelle, Preston, and Charlotte first went missing, rumors were broadcast in the news, claiming that Annabelle fled prosecution for killing Baker, that Lester killed Preston and fled with Annabelle, and that Sandy died by suicide. The media presence and the speculation and innuendo that result from their involvement highlight how unreliable a profit-driven media can be and how their interference in criminal cases can cause lasting damage.
Ryder Hillier exemplifies the unreliable and intrusive type of journalism explored in the novel. Her initial information on Sloan is an illegally transmitted report from the FBI, which leads Ryder to invade the lives of those close to Sloan. As Ryder makes a fake appointment with Dolly, she notes, “The pressure was on. Getting the first interview with Sloan Hastings, even if it was just an ambush video on her cell phone, would be huge for Unsolved” (167), reinforcing the fact that Ryder’s focus is on building the fame and revenue of her podcast, not solving the case. Specifically, Ryder is willing to “ambush” Sloan to get what she wants, and she proceeds to “ambush” Dolly and Hayden, too. When Ryder finally arrives in Cedar Creek, she even risks her own and her cameraman’s lives to get footage of Ellis disguised as Guy. Ryder’s tactics and motives are precisely the problematic, profit-driven behaviors that the Margolis family fears.
In the final chapters, Sloan still delays speaking to the press, waiting to talk with Avery Mason from American Events. Avery is framed as a trustworthy journalist, vouched for by Livia, and Sloan’s focus is on clearing up rumors surrounding the case. Regardless of the interview with Avery, Sloan notes before giving her dissertation that she will “provid[e] the answers that had eluded the media, law enforcement, and true crime fanatics who had chased the story for three decades” (340). These answers are reserved for Sloan’s dissertation, delivered in the OCME in Raleigh, because the crowd in the dissertation hall is composed of people who value truth and ethics. Sloan’s goal is not to become a sensationalist journalist but a dedicated researcher and medical examiner, so it is fitting that the full truth would be reserved for that trustworthy and reliable environment. With this conclusion, the novel highlights both the problematic nature of for-profit media and the ways one can circumvent it.
The Limits of Small-Town Influence and Power
In the first chapters of the novel, the Margolis family is framed as a massive, wealthy, and powerful dynasty with near-total control over Cedar Creek, a small town in Harrison County, Nevada. Sandy, Eric, and reporters all note how the Margolis family controls the political, legal, and economic aspects of life in Cedar Creek—even the sheriffs of Harrison County hesitate to confront them. The glimpse into how the Margolis family steals Baker’s body and pays a coroner to misreport the cause of death highlights how they can control events in a small environment. However, when the Margolis family is forced to contend on a national stage, even Reid admits that their wealth and influence don’t extend that far. This admission acknowledges the limits of their power and illustrates that, despite the family’s prominence, there is still room for revealing the truth and effecting change.
In addition to the limitations the Margolis family faces on a national scale, they also struggle to maintain their inner circle when under pressure. Sandy and Eric fear confronting the family, but members of the family are not bothered by the threats of their relatives. Preston, for example, decides to leave the family, and Annabelle tells Tilly, “You think you control everything that goes on, but you know so little. And when you find out, your perfect little world…it’s all going to crumble” (303). The Margolis family only controls what happens within their sphere of influence, but even then, they struggle to control themselves. Ellis is a prime example of this failure, as he develops a gambling addiction, steals money, and even kills his brother and parents, all the while assuming he will not face any consequences. The “perfect little world” Tilly, Reid, and Ellis imagine that they live in is actually an illusion created by their wealth, exposing another limitation of their worldview.
The largest obstacle to their local power is the three consecutive Stamos sheriffs of Harrison County. Eric tells Sloan, “Every four years the [Margolis] family spends millions backing a new candidate for sheriff, but it’s almost as though the folks of Cedar Creek and Harrison Country know that the Margolis family is already too powerful” (62). The local community is well aware that the elected position of sheriff prevents the family from ceasing total control over their “little world,” and the community consciously keeps that power out of their hands. This gap in their power proves to be their undoing: Though Sandy was unable to stop Ellis and Tilly in 1995, Eric plays a significant role in helping Sloan stop Ellis in 2024. The idea that Cedar Creek’s residents understand the power of the family and actively try to limit that power emphasizes their understanding of the power dynamic in their small town. Although the Margolises see themselves as wielding outsize influence, the responses of their local community and the larger national stage demonstrate that even with all the wealth in the world, the Margolis family’s power can only grow to a certain size before hitting its limit.
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