The Skeleton Box

Set in Starvation Lake, Mich., Edgar-finalist Gruley’s winning third novel featuring local newspaper editor Gus Carpenter (after 2010’s The Hanging Tree) finds him playing goalie for a men’s hockey league in his spare time and looking after his mother, who’s gradually slipping into dementia. A series of burglaries has the placid community on edge, and the townspeople demand action after an elderly friend of Carpenter’s mother is murdered. Assisted by his on-again, off-again police officer girlfriend, Carpenter determines to find the truth, which may reach back to the 50-year-old disappearance of a beautiful young nun. As Carpenter and veteran investigative reporter Luke Whistler venture into unexpected places, it becomes clear that someone is willing to go to any length to keep the past buried. While the small town as a variant of the locked-room mystery has been done before, Gruley injects freshness into a familiar story. 20-city author tour. Agent: Erin Malone, William Morris Endeavor. (June)