House. Tree. Person.

Ali McGovern, the mentally unstable narrator of this unsettling thriller set in Scotland from Edgar-finalist McPherson (Quiet Neighbors), manages to land a well-paying job at Howell Hall, a psychiatric hospital in the Galloway countryside, despite her lack of experience with special-needs clients. On the home front, her husband has run his business into the ground, and her beloved 15-year-old son is sullen and uncommunicative. At Howell Hall, Ali develops a fondness for Sylvie and Julia, two young patients, but can’t figure out why they’ve been confined there. Nor does the director provide satisfactory answers to Ali’s questions. The discovery of a body on the hospital grounds increases her anxiety. In this universe, no one is to be trusted, and Ali is forced to rely on herself—despite all the questions about her own tenuous grip on sanity. McPherson keeps the suspense level high; her heroine comes across as clinically interesting but not particularly sympathetic. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Literary Agency. (Sept.)