As She Left It

British author McPherson takes a break from her Danny Gilver cozy series (After the Armistice Ball, etc.) with this dark, absorbing, contemporary stand-alone. After her alcoholic mother’s death, 25-year-old Opal Jones returns to gritty Mote Street in Leeds, England, where she grew up. There she encounters many of the same people she knew at age 12 when she left home. When Opal learns that three-year-old Craig Southgate, whom she used to babysit, disappeared shortly after Opal’s departure from Leeds, she resolves to find out what happened to him. Opal discovers that everyone in the old neighborhood has a secret—even elderly Mr. Gordon, the New Orleans jazz musician known as Fishbo, who taught her to play trumpet. As her own forgotten memories begin to surface in her search for Craig, Opal must summon the courage to face some hard truths about her own past. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Literary Agency. (June)