She’s Gone

In this absorbing thriller by Bell (The Finalists, for adults), Kentucky high school senior Hunter endeavors to find his missing girlfriend, Chloe, and clear his name as a suspect in her disappearance. After leaving their school’s homecoming dance, the couple gets into a car accident on an isolated rural road. When Hunter wakes up in the hospital with a concussion, he learns that Chloe is missing. Though the memory loss caused by his concussion renders him unable to help the police in their search, at a community vigil, Chloe’s mother accuses Hunter of obstructing the investigation. To complicate matters, his best friend Danny, who is filming a true crime documentary about Chloe’s disappearance, is murdered shortly after he and Hunter have a public argument, further turning the town against him. Fearing potential jail time, Hunter—joined by his younger sister, Olivia, and her girlfriend, Gabriela—struggles to assemble the missing pieces of his memory to find Chloe and expose Danny’s murderer. Hunter’s amiable dynamic with Olivia and Gabriela injects humor and levity, and short, propulsive chapters keep the pages of this well-paced mystery turning toward a punchy, if somewhat contrived, conclusion. Most characters read as white; Gabriela is Mexican American. Ages 14–up. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management. (Nov.)