Bone Dust White

In Salvalaggio’s haunting debut, Det. Macy Greeley, a special investigator for the state of Montana, returns to Collier, where 11 years earlier the bodies of four Eastern European women were found in a roadside picnic area and the prime suspect’s sister-in-law, Leanne Adams, disappeared. The normally dedicated detective, who’s looking into a fresh murder related to the earlier killings, is less than enthusiastic about the assignment, in part because she’s heavily pregnant with her first child. Collier doesn’t disappoint: it’s a small-minded small town with an environment as toxic as the meth labs that seem to be its only surviving industry. Still, single-mom-to-be Macy finds herself drawn to the fragile teen at the center of the investigation, Grace Adams—the daughter Leanne left behind—who might just be the next victim. Though astute readers will suss out some of the underlying mystery before they should, the author creates a hardscrabble community of characters that readers won’t soon forget. Agent: Felicity Blunt, Curtis Brown. (May)