I Shot the Devil

McIver’s propulsive if overstuffed debut follows a hard-drinking journalist as she attempts to solve a Long Island cold case. On Halloween 1994, five teenagers went into the woods in Suffolk County, N.Y., to perform a satanic ritual while high on psychedelics. Only three came out alive: Andre Villiers was killed by his friends, and police shot ringleader Ricky Heller at the scene. Teenager Erin Sloane was home that night, drinking to suppress her anger that Ricky stood her up for a date. Sixteen years later, Erin is still mired in booze and working as a writer for the local monthly magazine when she’s assigned a retrospective story about the case. Interviewing the survivors and their families opens old wounds and inflicts new ones, including being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Danny Quinlan-Walsh, who was one of the survivors and is desperate to put an end to Erin’s reporting. McIver initially makes good on her intriguing premise, providing a handful of truly jaw-dropping twists, but the secret betrayals and brutal criminal acts begin to strain credulity as they pile high in the final act. Here’s hoping McIver’s next outing is more finely tuned. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (July)