The Good Daughter

At the start of this convoluted novel from Burt (Remember Mia), 33-year-old Dahlia Waller finds an unidentified woman lying comatose in the woods near the home she shares with her mentally unstable mother in Aurora, Tex. The experience inspires Dahlia to dig into the mysteries of her own past, including the absence of her father, the nomadic nature of her childhood, and her mother’s aversion to paperwork. When Dahlia discovers an abandoned farm that’s been deeded to her mother and on which three bodies are buried, she demands answers. Her mother supplies nothing but stories regarding strangers, however, leaving Dahlia to wonder whether she’ll ever know the truth about her family and their history. Burt dooms an intriguing premise with arbitrary plotting, glacial pacing, and characters that lack depth and verisimilitude. Supernatural elements introduced early in the tale hint at magic that never comes to pass, and the Jane Doe story line has so little to do with the rest of the book that it feels like an afterthought . (Feb.)