Wish You Were Gone

YA author Scott (the Cheerleader trilogy) makes her adult debut with a stylish thriller fueled by family deceptions. Emma Walsh is finally ready to tell her angry, alcoholic husband, James, she wants a divorce after years of hiding his flaws from the world. When James neither arrives at the Manhattan restaurant chosen for the conversation nor answers her texts, she returns home to suburban New Jersey. Five hours later, his car crashes into their garage with James unconscious inside it. The police deem his subsequent death accidental, but Emma has questions. Most urgently, where is his ubiquitous cellphone, and who is the woman who answers when Emma calls his number? Emma’s two closest friends offer to help her find out amid their own personal difficulties, including the wife of James’s partner in a lucrative sports PR firm, a former NFL linebacker who has developed sports-related brain damage. As Emma uncovers James’s hidden life, she finds that her two teenage children have secrets of their own. Scott’s complex story lines come together in an explosive climax. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty will welcome this new arrival on the domestic thriller scene. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Nov.)