Buried Memories

British author Green starts to provide some answers about his unusual sleuth in his intriguing 10th mystery featuring alien-in-disguise Ishmael Jones (after 2020’s The House on Widows Hill). Jones, apparently the sole survivor of an extraterrestrial spaceship that crashed in the English countryside in 1963, was transformed by the craft’s artificial intelligence into human form, became a successful operative for secret underground organizations, and acquired a romantic partner, Penny Belcourt. Fifty years after his arrival on Earth, Jones learns that another of his kind survived the crash, and journeys with Penny to Norton Hedley, the town nearest the crash site, in search of more information. Instead, Jones finds odd locals, unexplained disappearances (some of which predate the aliens’ arrival), reports of claw marks from unidentified creatures, and a ghostly manor that burned down centuries earlier. Jones hopes that a Norton Hedley resident, an expert on UFOs and folklore, can help, but instead he ends up a prime suspect in multiple murders. Green offers enough to please series fans and hook newcomers, while posing new mysteries. X-Files devotees will be satisfied. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky. (Oct.)