cover image Precious Thing

Precious Thing

Colette McBeth. Minotaur, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-250-04119-7

At the outset of British author McBeth’s haunting first novel, London-based reporter Rachel Walsh travels to Brighton to cover the disappearance of a 28-year-old woman who turns out to be her childhood best friend, Clara O’Connor. Years earlier, Rachel was the awkward, chubby new girl at school, whom the beautiful, charismatic Clara took under her wing. Now Rachel is the successful, enviable one with a stable job and a loving boyfriend, while Clara, just back from a seven-year stint abroad that included time in a psychiatric ward, stumbles in her new life. When Clara’s case begins to look more sinister than it first appeared, Rachel must admit to the authorities not only her history with Clara but also that she’d been in Brighton the same night her friend disappeared to meet Clara. As the details of the two teenage girls’ relationship unfold in the past, the reader begins to wonder to what lengths a person will go for friendship. McBeth imbues her characters with layers upon hidden layers, keeping readers guessing until the end. (Mar.)