The Girl Who Wasn’t There

Sidney O’Keefe, the unreliable narrator of this engrossing thriller from Thriller Award winner Zandri (The Caretaker’s Wife), declares, “I’m lucky to be alive, having survived a ten-year stint in an upstate New York maximum security prison... incarcerated for a quadruple homicide I did not commit.” Unexpectedly released on parole, Sidney reunites with his wife, Penny, and their 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, at a resort near Lake Placid, N.Y. “It’s a sweet dream come true,” he muses, until Chloe goes missing. His first thought is that his former boss, crime lord Mickey Rabuffo, is behind the abduction. The Lake Placid police, however, are convinced that Sidney himself is responsible for the girl’s disappearance. He winds up on the run, unsure who’s friend or foe. To save himself and his family, Sidney vows to stop at nothing, a decision that leaves him ensnared in a tangled web of death and deceit. How much of what’s going on is real or only in Sidney’s imagination Zandri leaves tantalizingly unclear. The ambiguity is more likely to please readers than not. Agent: Chip MacGregor, MacGregor and Luedeke Literary. (Sept.)