The Impersonator

Miley’s lively debut follows vaudeville actress Leah Randall as she takes on the most challenging role of her young life—impersonating an heiress, Jessie Carr, who went missing seven years earlier, in 1917. Jessie’s smarmy Uncle Oliver approaches Leah, currently unemployed and a dead ringer for his niece, with an irresistible offer: impersonate Jessie and share her $10 million inheritance with him in six months, when Jessie would have turned 21. Leah gets more than she bargained for, however, after she leaves for the Carrs’ estate on the coast of Oregon, Cliff House. There are two attempts on her life before she even arrives. The family’s Pinkerton investigators are excruciatingly thorough. And what about that bizarre series of local murders? The story is engrossing, the characters satisfyingly larger than life, and one can only hope for an encore from the smart, feisty, and talented heroine. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary Agency. (Sept.)