Beauty in the Blood

In this addictive supernatural thriller from Carter (Walking Bones), a curse passed down through generations exacts a terrible toll in the present. Former Rikers Island women’s prison guard Yvonne Howard has begun a new chapter as a chef at Sea Grass, a New York City soul food fusion restaurant. Her past catches up to her, however, when a former inmate, Bitty, comes begging for her help solving the bizarre death of her brother, who fell naked from a hotel window under mysterious circumstances. When Bitty then dies a gruesome death, her corpse covered in a vile and mysterious slime, Yvonne connects the horrifying incidents to Sarah Toomey, a successful Black lawyer whose faculties have increasingly become hijacked by a bizarre force that blanks her memory and leaves corpses in her wake. Yvonne’s investigation unveils a brutal history of American racism and the exploitation of Black bodies. Carter’s prose jumps nimbly between timelines and perspectives, culminating in a devastating finale as the plot’s many pieces click into place. Weaving horror, mystery, and razor-sharp social commentary, this is a bloody triumph. Agent: Murray Weiss, Catalyst Literary. (Feb.)