Evenfall

Muddled and confusing, Michalski's debut novel focuses on a Frank Wildermuth, and his attempts to reunite with a long-lost love and straighten out his niece Andie's love life. Unfortunately, Wildermuth happens to be a ghost. Andie, recovering from a break-up with her unfaithful boyfriend Neal, develops a romance with childhood friend Cort McCallister, which becomes complicated when Neal reappears. As Andie and her Aunt Gert clear out Frank's New England house, the eponymous Evenfall, the story of Gert's affair with Frank, her brother-in-law, emerges. The writing is competent and vivid, but the unhurried pace of the story, coupled with the odd present-tense choice, will put some readers off. Even more disappointing is that Gert, the most interesting character in the book, gets short shrift in the end. (Feb.)