What Fire Brings

An aspiring suspense writer searches for her missing friend in this intricate if unwieldy chiller from bestseller Hall (What Never Happened). Forty-something Bailey Meadows arrives at the swanky Topanga Canyon estate of popular crime novelist Jack Beckham with dual missions. On the one hand, Beckham has selected her as a writer-in-residence to help him shape his latest thriller; on the other, she’s secretly searching for her missing friend Sam Morris, who disappeared somewhere near Beckham’s remote property while trying to find another lost girl. Upon arrival, Bailey feels out of place—she’s the only Black person at her welcome party, which is populated by Beckham’s ritzy California milieu. Her unease grows following suspicious encounters with Beckham’s ex-con cook and the Botoxed novelist himself. As Bailey pursues her theory that Sam entered a dissociative fugue somewhere in the canyon, Hall shuffles in scraps of history about a 1993 wildfire in the area, gradually orchestrating the plot to a scorching crescendo. The pacing is a bit jerky, and most of the red herrings are too telegraphed to trick readers, but Hall’s gift for white-knuckle action saves the day. This will satisfy suspense fans. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (June)