The Accomplice

In 2002, gregarious Owen Mann and fiercely guarded (for good reason) Luna Grey, the protagonists of this darkly comic, fast-paced thriller from bestseller Lutz (The Swallows), immediately click as freshmen at Markham University, forming a profound, though strictly platonic bond. They also share a curious propensity for becoming persons of interest in homicide probes, as detectives in Deerkill, N.Y., the Hudson Valley town near where both are living with their spouses in 2019, discover when the police start to investigate the murder of Owen’s wife, whose body Luna reports finding while jogging through the local cemetery. The author employs this suspenseful whodunit as a springboard for graceful dives into the friends’ complicated shared history and secrets as well as a present—and a future—far murkier than readers expect. Quirky characters, humor in unexpected places, and a twisty but plausible plot keep the pages turning. Readers will be torn between eagerness to get to the bottom of the novel’s mysteries—and reluctance for the adventure to end. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary. (Jan.)