The Undoing

At the outset of Dean’s unsettling second novel, Julian Moss, who’s poised to jump into a ravine in an apparent suicide, holds a note reading: “Julian, I know what you did.” The day before, Julian returned to stay at the Blackbird Hotel in Jawbone Ridge, Colo., which he previously owned, but left five years ago, after the mysterious shooting deaths of his three best friends: Celia Dark; her stepbrother, Rory McFarland; and her boyfriend, Eric Dillon. In their youth, Celia’s father abandoned Celia and Rory, leaving them with an ambivalent and inattentive mother. In flashbacks, Celia and Rory band together to survive, eventually joined by Eric, a victim of a physically abusive father. When the three reach adulthood, they fulfill Celia’s lifelong dream of purchasing the Blackbird, but tensions quickly grow as others plot against them. Dean (Alice Close Your Eyes) slowly reveals what really happened during the fatal shooting and how Julian was involved in this chilling tale of obsessive love, loyalty, and jealously. Agent: Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management. (Jan.)