Smothermoss

Alering mixes mountain magic and teenage angst in her potent if murky debut set in 1980s Appalachia. Sisters Sheila, 17, and Angie, 12, live on a mountain with their mother and their great-aunt Thena, who took the family in after a hazily described traumatic event involving their father. Sheila, who has a rope tied around her neck that only she can see, works as a dishwasher at a state asylum for the criminally insane when she is not at school, while Angie spends her free time drawing tarot-like cards whose characters talk to her, including one she names the Worm King. After two women are found bludgeoned to death on a hiking trail near Thena’s house, the girls put their minds and their magic toward finding the killer. Many strange things happen—a boy who inexplicably lives at the asylum tells Sheila he can see her rope, drawings of Angie’s characters appear in a patient’s cell, and the sisters eventually turn up useful clues thanks to input from the Worm King. Some readers will be left scratching their heads, but Alering pulls off an evocative portrait of the creepy rural setting. It’s a passable Appalachian gothic. Agents: Martha Perotto-Wills and James Mustelier, Bent Agency. (July)