She Lies Close

Recently divorced Grace Wright, the neurotic narrator of Doering’s promising debut, has moved with her two small children to Saint’s Crossing, “a neighborhood of families, young and old” that seems safe to her. When she learns that her neighbor, Leland Ernest, is a suspect in the disappearance of five-year-old Ava Boone six months earlier, she starts watching a video of Ava singing and dancing that the girl’s older brother made and posted on YouTube (and was later played in news stories after she went missing), which fuel her growing obsession with Ava and Leland. One day, she thinks she sees Ava in Leland’s house, and, after breaking into the place, she finds children’s toys there. Certain that Leland is the culprit, Grace becomes even more worried about her children. One night, she awakes in her bathtub, fully dressed, and has vivid flashes of a killing. A subsequent murder heightens her fears. For all her anxieties, Grace can be funny about her shortcomings and is capable of laugh-out-loud moments of sarcasm. Imaginative prose is a plus (“My mind is a snow globe in the hands of a toddler who’s shitfaced on apple juice”). Readers will be curious to see what this talented author comes up with next. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary. (Sept.)