Echoes of Grace

In this elaborately plotted gothic mystery set in modern-day South Texas, García McCall (All the Stars Denied) expertly weaves together the personal and family history of an 18-year-old with an inherited ability known as echoes—“a kind of woman’s intuition with sights and sounds and smells”—as she pieces together heartbreaking past events in the aftermath of a present-day family tragedy. Three years prior to this story’s present, Grace Torres disappeared for a week, turning up on a church pew in Mexico with no memory of how she got there. Now, following the accidental death of her nephew Alexander, ghosts begin to permeate Grace’s world in ways she can’t predict, and she must fight to understand what the echoes mean before her strained relationship with her older sister Mercy—Alexander’s mother—fractures forever. Employing a carefully guided first-person voice and sensory-rich imagery that centers nature (“The morning light pulses and wavers, making each bristle of dark hair on the caterpillar glint”), García McCall crafts a haunting, intrigue-laden update on the genre that—through critiques of generational trauma cycles wrought through femicide and gender-based violence—demands accountability and action. Protagonists are cued as of Mexican heritage. Ages 14–up. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Agency. (June)