At the Edge of the Haight

Journalist Seligman’s earnest if diffuse debut drifts between murder mystery and compassionate sociological study. One day, 20-year-old Maddy Donaldo, who is homeless, follows her dog into a thicketed area of Golden Gate Park, where she finds a dying teenage boy and a menacing man who claims to know where she sleeps. Spooked, she hides out as best she can, but after she tells her friend Ash about the incident, the case leads back to her. The boy is later identifed as Shane Golden, and after his parents come to San Francisco from Upstate New York, they want to talk to Maddy about how he’d been living and how he died. (In one of the novel’s several less-than-credible turns, the Goldens suggest Maddy come live with them in New York.) The killer is eventually identified, but the case founders, and Maddy becomes obsessed with finding out more about Shane. While Seligman has a strong sense of the city and of the challenges faced by the homeless, the murder plot fizzles out as the author goes on fruitless tangents, such as following Ash to a therapeutic wilderness camp after Ash’s parents track him down. Seligman’s portrayal of life as a homeless young person is immersive, but ultimately too sentimental. (Jan.)