The Missing Years

London TV news producer Ailsa Calder, the 30-something narrator of this intriguing if somewhat unsatisfying novel from Elliott (The French Girl), inherits half-ownership of a house known as the Manse in the Scottish Highlands after her mother dies. The other half belongs to her father, who vanished 27 years earlier. In the hope of discovering his fate, Ailsa returns to the Manse, where she’s joined by her younger half-sister, Carrie, whom she barely knows. Ailsa wants to sell it, but must first prove that her father, the joint owner, is dead. The sisters meet some locals at a nearby pub, including Jamie McCue and his peculiar sister, Fiona, who believe that the Manse is haunted. Strange things start to happen—animal carcasses are left at the front door, bones are found hidden in a room, a skull appears atop a bed—but Ailsa is not deterred from trying to discover the truth about her missing father. Elliott’s mix of ghost story, mystery, and psychological thriller will strike some readers as less than sure-handed, with one genre blending awkwardly into another in confusing ways. Hopefully, Elliott will return to form next time. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.)