Wide Open

A young woman who keeps company with spirits and a smalltown deputy haunted by premonitions become unusual allies in this refreshingly original dark fantasy debut. Sgt. Hallie Michaels has seen ghosts since her near-death experience in Afghanistan. When she returns home to Rapid City, S.D., on compassionate leave, the constant presence of her sister’s insistent shade convinces her that Dell’s suicide was actually murder. Grudgingly, Hallie teams up with deputy Boyd Davies, whose precognitive dreams tell him that someone is covering up the truth behind Dell’s death. Together, the two investigate Dell’s former employer, a research firm whose ability to control the weather derives from mastery of forces a bit darker than meteorological science. The plot turns on more than a few convenient coincidences, but Coates makes her premise believable through her canny and credible depiction of life in a rural backwater where the normal and paranormal seamlessly merge. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates. (Mar.)