Someone Must Die

Resourceful and emotionally strong characters boost this satisfying domestic thriller from Potts (The Devil’s Madonna). At an amusement park in Miami, Fla., Diana Lynd, a retired physician, and her six-year-old grandson, Ethan, enter a fun house, but when Diana emerges from the dark building, there’s no sign of Ethan. Diana soon finds herself at the center of the investigation into the boy’s disappearance, surrounded by unfriendly FBI agents, Ethan’s aloof and very rich maternal grandparents, an angry ex-husband, an unforgiving son (Ethan’s father), and relentless, terrifying memories. The point of view alternates between Diana and her daughter, Aubrey, a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology at Brown, who recently broke up with her unfaithful poet boyfriend. Audrey flies to Miami, where she realizes that the only way to save her nephew is to uncover the truth about her parents’ past. In the end, Aubrey faces a tough ethical decision. Readers will applaud her courage. (June)