Sleeping Giants

The mysterious drowning of nine-year-old Dennis Owens haunts the remote Oregon coastal community of Eagle Cove two decades later in Denfeld’s enthralling follow-up to The Butterfly Girl. After Amanda Dufresne seeks out information about her birth parents, the lonely young zookeeper learns she had a brother, Dennis, who was taken from their alcoholic mother and put into Brightwood, a residential treatment center for boys with behavioral issues, when he was four years old. Five years later, he drowned in the nearby Pacific Ocean, possibly after escaping to the beach from Brightwood. Shocked, Amanda visits a roadside memorial overlooking the spot where Dennis was last seen 20 years earlier and meets widower Larry Palmer, a retired police officer looking for a purpose. Together, Amanda and Larry dig into Brightwood’s troubled history, learning along the way that most local authorities and community members would prefer tales of the treatment center and its multiple missing boys to stay forgotten. Eventually, Amanda and Larry learn that a regime change at Brightwood just before Dennis was admitted led to the appointment of new director Martha King, who believed her cruel treatments benefitted the children even as she dealt them irreparable harm. Though the subject matter is often wrenching, Denfeld wrings considerable sweetness from the relationship between Amanda and Larry, and never allows the narrative to wallow in Dickensian misery. The result is a heartfelt mystery that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. Agent: Richard Pine, InkWell. (Mar.)