Bad Man

Auerbach follows his first novel, 2012’s Penpal, with a dark and disturbing horror thriller set in the Florida Panhandle. One day, 15-year-old Ben takes his three-year-old brother, Eric, to a local grocery store, where Eric drops his stuffed rhino, Stampie, into a restroom toilet. While Ben is cleaning Stampie, Eric vanishes. Five years later, Ben is working as a night stocker in the same store that Eric disappeared in and remains intent on finding his brother. When a coworker informs Ben that he saw Eric months earlier, Ben’s obsession becomes manic and he begins seeing others—including his manager, the old woman who runs the bakery, and a coworker—as potential conspirators. Readers will be reminded of the young Stephen King (the store’s baler, for example, evokes King’s industrial laundry press machine in “The Mangler”), but the story unravels at the conclusion, with one too many strained sequences. The novel’s rich imagery suggests Auerbach is capable of doing better next time. (Aug.)