Not Bad People

Set in Australia, Scott’s quiet debut centers on three lifelong friends: Melinda Baker, the successful CEO of a direct-sales jewelry company; Aimee Verratti, an obsessive-compulsive wife and mother; and Lou Henderson, a single mom struggling paycheck-to-paycheck. On New Year’s Eve, the three friends perform a letting-go ceremony, inscribing note cards with all the things they’re going to leave behind and tying them to paper lanterns. As they watch their lanterns float over the town of Hensley, they see a small fire in the distance. The next morning, Aimee reads an article in the paper about a nearby plane crash that seriously injured a deputy high school principal and his teenage son. Convinced that she and her friends mistakenly caused the crash, Aimee grows more and more anxious. Lou and Melinda become concerned that she’ll tell all of Hensley, but they can’t dwell on it for long, as they soon have other issues to deal with, such as Lou’s 16-year-old daughter getting pregnant and trouble with Melinda’s business. Decades of secrets slowly unravel as this small-town mystery crawls to an anticlimactic end. Too much information and not enough action spoil this effort. Agent: Vicki Marsdon, High Spot Literary (New Zealand). (May)