The New Neighbor

Widower Aidan Marlowe, the narrator of this disquieting psychological thriller from Wilson (The Dead Husband), is at his wife’s grave the day of her funeral when his phone vibrates. Among his text messages is one informing him that he has won $30 million in the Powerball lottery. A few weeks later, he has moved from Baltimore with his seven-year-old twins to the small town of Bury, N.H., a destination chosen on impulse. As soon as he crosses the threshold of his imposing new house, he feels a shift in air pressure: “It’s heavy and heady, a Bordeaux of tingles.” He discovers that the previous owner, Logan Yates, an investment banker in his 70s, “just left the house one day and never came back.” Almost immediately Aidan finds the first of a series of threatening notes, signed “We Who Watch.” Aidan begins to suspect that the threats are somehow tied to the disappearance of Yates and his family. Wilson skillfully piles on the creepiness, ratcheting up the tension as Aidan’s world starts spinning out of control, though not every mystery is resolved by the end. Megan Miranda fans will be satisfied. Agent: Pamela Ahearn, Ahearn Agency. (Apr.)