The Murder Complex

Cummings debuts with a bloody dystopian thriller, in which what’s left of humanity hides behind the great Perimeter and scrabbles over increasingly scarce resources. No one dies from natural causes, thanks to nanites in humans’ bloodstreams, and as a result violence and murder are commonplace. Sixteen-year-old Meadow Woodson fights to the death to earn a job that will let her feed her family. Everything changes when she meets Zephyr James, a mysterious young man secretly programmed to be a killer. Together, they confront the darkest secrets of their society, while battling each other and a host of other enemies. Cummings takes her dystopian setting to almost ludicrous extremes before springing a flurry of surprises on readers. The frequent perspective switches between Meadow and Zephyr are almost whiplash-inducing, and the characters prove hard to sympathize with: Meadow kills with worrisome casualness, Zephyr is almost too tormented by his role, and their predictable romance has little grounding. The setting remains nebulous, and the cliffhanger ending leaves much to be resolved. Ages 14–up. Agent: Louise Fury, L. Perkins Agency. (June)