The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton

Ray’s amiable debut centers on the eponymous Amy Ashton, a woman approaching middle age whose life was knocked off-course by the disappearance of both her best friend and her boyfriend. In chapters alternating between present and past, the reader learns Amy was once a happy young woman, dating Tim, a struggling musician, and working an admin job to make rent while pursuing her true passion, painting. When the novel opens, Amy is still working the admin job, 11 years after Tim and her best friend, Chantel, disappeared, and lives alone in a house that’s become overcrowded with her possessions. It all changes when a family with two young boys moves in next door. Amy is initially dismayed by the idea of children coming inside and trampling her “treasures,” but a mishap involving a cat and a ceramic pot leads to a chance discovery of the first real clue as to what may have happened to Tim and Chantel. The first clue, a ring, leads to a second, a letter, and soon Amy is cast in the role of amateur investigator, while her relationship with her charming neighbors rejuvenates her. Though the ending is a tad Hollywood, Ray has a light touch with her prose. Readers who can appreciate a comforting story about nice people will find much to like. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, AM Heath Literary. (June)