Dear Future Me

O’Connor (The Captive) debuts with an enthralling dual-timeline mystery that links two tragedies, 20 years apart. In 2003, a teacher in the seaside English town of Saltburn, North Yorkshire, asks his sixth-form students to write letters to their future selves after 17-year-old Ben Spellman dies accidentally on a class trip to the Lake District. Twenty years later, the students receive their old letters. The same day, Miranda Breivart is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. The police believe her death is a suicide, but her close friend Audrey—whose dreams of attending Cambridge fell through and who now works as a house cleaner for some of her wealthy former classmates—suspects foul play. Realizing only she cares enough to learn the truth, Audrey launches an investigation that soon casts doubt both on Ben’s long-ago death and the peaceful facade of a town she thought she knew. Early on, O’Connor writes that aspirations can be “a weight around your neck from which you can never wriggle free,” and she explores that idea to its fullest, with Audrey’s quest taking on a poignant, tragic quality from its first moments. Themes of moral relativism and class difference are equally well developed. This is a winner. Agent: Rachel Yeoh, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (June)