Please Tell Me

In this bracing thriller, Omer (Spider’s Web) traces the fallout from a nine-year-old girl’s abduction. Young Kathy Stone has been missing for 18 months when she’s found wandering the streets miles from her home in Bethelville, Ind. Kathy has stopped speaking, and begins working with child psychologist Robin Hart soon after she’s reunited with her family. During one of her sessions, Kathy uses dolls to perfectly mimic a series of recent murders; soon, she’s acting out the details of brutal killings before they happen. Dr. Hart calls in the police, who begin to fear that she and Kathy are being watched by whoever’s committing the crimes. With Kathy still refusing to speak, authorities team up with her parents to figure out who abducted her, why, and whether that person has come back to finish what they started. Omer’s no-nonsense prose, though occasionally clumsy, allows his proficient plotting to take center stage: every character, major or minor, registers as a plausible suspect at some point, and when the solution to the mystery finally arrives, it doesn’t disappoint. The result is a haunting and propulsive hair-raiser. Agent: Sarah Hershman, Hershman Rights Management. (Nov.)