After Anna

Divorce attorney Julia Crowne, the heroine of this nail-biting psychological thriller from the pseudonymous Lake, a British novelist, arrives one afternoon at Westwood, a school somewhere in the U.K., to pick up her five-year-old daughter, Anna—but Anna isn’t there. Either the girl wandered off or she was kidnapped. A few days earlier, Julia asked her husband, Brian, in whom she has lost interest, for a separation. Once the story of Anna’s disappearance gets out, the press vilifies Julia, falsely labeling her as a negligent, mentally unstable adulterer who was planning on leaving her husband and daughter. A week later, the police receive a call from a newsagent, who says that a little girl has walked into his store claiming to be Anna. Once Anna returns home, the nightmare is far from over, and Julia’s life unravels even more. Alternating between the viewpoints of the abductor and the frantic, guilt-ridden Julia, Lake deftly exposes their deepest thoughts and maintains high suspense to the very end. Agent: Melissa Pimentel, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Aug.)