Off the Deep End

Suburban Minneapolis therapist Jules Hart, the protagonist of this gripping psychological thriller from Berry (The Best of Friends), plunges her car into an icy lake while trying to avoid hitting a deer. Trapped in the car are Gabe, her teenage son, and his friend Isaac Greer. When Jules tries to rescue Gabe, she pulls Isaac free instead, and Gabe drowns. The guilt-ridden Jules, her marriage broken, ends up at a psychiatric facility. After Jules leaves the facility, where she spends more than a month, Isaac goes missing and the police fear he’s the latest victim of a serial killer targeting teenage boys; Isaac’s mother thinks Jules is responsible, given her insistence in the accident’s aftermath on seeing and talking to Isaac and bonding with him over their shared near-death experience. Jules’s efforts to answer her therapist’s questions without revealing Isaac’s confidences are complicated by her struggles with guilt. No one seems above suspicion in Isaac’s disappearance, and everyone seems to have something to hide. As the suspense mounts, the action drives to a harrowing conclusion. Berry delivers the goods. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen. (Jan.)