Night Watcher

Going West podcaster Woolsoncroft debuts with a creepy mystery about a serial killer stalking the streets of Portland, Ore. Nola Strate’s life takes a dark turn when, at age eight, she sees a masked figure murder her babysitter. Twenty years later, while hosting the late-night call-in radio show her father started, Nola receives a frantic call from a woman who believes there is a ghost in her house. When the call drops, and reports emerge that the woman was murdered, Nola fears that the killer from her youth—whom locals across the Pacific Northwest dubbed “the Hiding Man”—has returned. Moved to confront her buried memories of her babysitter’s murder, Nola realizes that the lion’s share of evidence points toward her father, who’s planning to write a book about the Hiding Man slayings. Holding out hope that she’s wrong, she considers other suspects, including a shifty new neighbor. Woolsoncroft conjures plenty of classic, don’t-look-under-the-bed suspense, but the resolution feels somewhat underheated. Still, this is good for a quick thrill. Agent: Dan Milaschewski, UTA. (July)