Leave the girls behind A novel

Childhood trauma haunts a 26-year-old New Yorker in the disquieting latest from Bublitz (after Before You Knew My Name). Manhattan bartender Ruth-Ann Baker is walking to work in 2015 when an AMBER Alert sends her reeling. Nineteen years ago, Ruth's best friend, seven-year-old Beth Lovely, went missing from a playground in Hoben, Conn.; police eventually found her body in a shallow grave. Now, another seven-year-old has vanished from the same area. In recent years, Ruth became convinced that Ethan Oswald, who was convicted of killing Beth, also murdered three other girls--a theory conceived when the victims' ghosts started visiting her. She stopped investigating after friends, family, and the cops questioned her sanity, but now she vows to do whatever it takes to end the cycle. Though Oswald died in prison, Ruth suspects that an accomplice may have taken up his mantle, given the similarity of the crimes. Bublitz's intricate plot relies too heavily on coincidence, but the present-tense narration imparts urgency and unease, while occasional scenes from a captive child's perspective ratchet up the tension. Despite a few bumps, it's a solid sophomore effort. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop. (Oct.)

A young woman traumatized by a childhood friend's murder investigates a similar crime 19 years later. The true crime--loving amateur detective is everywhere in fiction these days, but New Zealand--born writer Bublitz brings a welcome twist to her version. As in her last novel,Before You Knew My Name (2022), she pushes the boundaries of the genre by adding a supernatural element and a sharp feminist sensibility to this thriller about New York City bartender Ruth-Ann Baker. A college dropout in her mid 20s, Ruth has good reason to be obsessed with true-crime stories: She's still suffering psychological trauma from the abduction and murder of her best friend, Beth Lovely, when they were both children. Local teacher Ethan Oswald was convicted of the crime and died in prison, but when Ruth learns another girl has vanished from her Connecticut hometown all these years later, she wonders if there could be a connection. Did Oswald have a helper still out there? She sounds out her theories with an unusual cohort: Beth's ghost and the ghosts of other murdered girls. But Ruth is not the most reliable of narrators, and Bublitz keeps the reader guessing about whether or not these ghostly conversations are all in Ruth's head. As Ruth embarks on an investigation that will take her around the world and into the lives of three different women with connections to Oswald, she reveals more about her own troubled past. With empathy and insight, Bublitz examines the scars violence leaves on its victims and refutes the idea that some deaths are more tragic than others. An empathetic psychological thriller with a supernatural twist. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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