Separation Anxiety

Lister’s inconsistency is on display in this weak mystery set in North Florida, a self-described “spiritual sequel” to 2009’s Double Exposure. But even fans of that contrived cat-and-mouse thriller will find this outing tough going. From their first meeting, artist Taylor Sean and novelist Marc Hayden Faulk fall into a passionate romance. Marc loves to observe how Taylor “transformed her scar-torn and traumatized body, through scarification and tattooing, into something ancient and sacred.” She, however, is burdened with guilt over the surgery that produced her scars, which separated her from her conjoined twin, Trevor, but in the process took Trevor’s life. When Taylor’s 16-year-old daughter, Shelby, disappears exactly eight years after Shelby’s twin, Savannah, was abducted, the artist begins to, very understandably, freak out. Lister has produced some stellar books, such as the John Jordan series, but strained, sometimes silly prose (Taylor is described as “one of the most famous artists and infamous twins in the country”) dooms this effort. (Nov.)