Black Diamond Fall

On a cold winter evening in Carleton, Vt., the principal setting of this nuanced literary mystery from Olshan (Cloudland), college student Luc Flanders vanishes after playing a game of pickup hockey with his roommates. That same evening the farmhouse that once belonged to the poet Robert Frost is vandalized. Det. Nick Jenkins of the Carleton police and his colleague Helen Kennedy investigate both crimes. They interview everyone in Luc’s life: his family, friends, casual acquaintances, and his lovers—both past and present. Everyone has reasons to lie about their feelings for Luc and their exact whereabouts on the day he disappeared. When Nick and Helen uncover one untruth after another, they return to confront the suspects; and slowly, inexorably a version of the truth about Luc’s life emerges, and in a sense, his life defines the lives of those closest to him. Readers will enjoy following the detectives as they uncover a link between the two crimes, but the real core of the book concerns the lies people tell each other and themselves. (Sept.)