Pray for the Girl

Souza (The Neighbor) offers a well-intentioned but relentlessly tone-deaf exploration of bigotry and xenophobia in rural America. At the start of the convoluted small-town whodunit, Lucy Abbott—a 33-year-old double-amputee sous chef and former army medic—flees New York City and returns home to Fawn Grove, Maine, after suffering a mental breakdown. She initially won’t leave her sister’s guest room, but then someone stones to death a 15-year-old Afghani refugee outside Fawn Grove. Lucy still has flashbacks of an “honor killing” that she failed to prevent while in Afghanistan, and since the detective on the case—her childhood bully—is virulently anti-immigrant, she decides to solve the murder herself. When the son of a racist white minister turns up dead in a cornfield near a pro-Islamic crop circle, Lucy questions whether somebody from the local immigrant community is responsible. But the more she digs, the less likely that seems—and the more anonymous threats she receives. Unfortunately, manufactured conflict and clunky expository dialogue sap tension, while a series of increasingly preposterous plot twists rob the central mystery of heft and verisimilitude. Hopefully, Souza will do better next time. [em]Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (May) [/em]