Scrap

Henkle’s overstuffed latest (after Other People’s Clothes) centers on a scrapbook artist investigating the death of her client. Esther Ray returns home to North Carolina after a vacation and discovers that her girlfriend has left her. Now solely responsible for her mortgage payments, Esther takes a job with the wealthy Naomi Duncan, who asks her to bind documents and family photos into scrapbooks as a birthday gift for Naomi’s husband, Bryce. From the beginning, Naomi is dodgy about the job, forcing Esther to sign a five-page NDA and only communicate with her via a burner phone. As Esther trawls through the documents, she grows obsessed with Naomi and Bryce’s glamorous life, though she notices hints of darkness around its edges. After Naomi dies in an apparent skiing accident, Esther gradually comes to suspect that Bryce may have killed her. In one flashback after another, Henkle details Esther’s childhood traumas, her obsession with true crime podcasts, and the unhinged intensity that has gotten her fired from previous jobs. Under the weight of all this exposition, the novel wobbles on the way toward its outlandish conclusion. Despite an intriguing setup, this falls short. Agent: Eleanor Birne, PEW Literary. (Aug.)