Before She Was Helen

Clemmie Lakefield, the heroine of this solid mystery from YA author Cooney (The Face on the Milk Carton), is known as Helen Stephens, a semi-retired teacher, at Sun City, the South Carolina retirement community she has made her home. Quiet and pleasant, if a bit dull, Clemmie is the perfect neighbor. When Dom Spesante, the dour occupant of the adjacent townhouse, fails to respond to Clemmie’s daily text, she goes next door to check on him. Dom is nowhere to be found, but Clemmie stumbles on a beautiful glass sculpture. One neighborly act and a photo posted to social media ignite a series of events that threaten to upend Clemmie’s charade as Helen. For 50 years, Clemmie has kept a terrible secret, but now with a robbery, the discovery of a body, and her fingerprints in a place they don’t belong, Clemmie’s lies are in danger of unraveling. Cooney offers frightening reminiscences of innocence destroyed while gently skewering the foibles of the aging and the young. Never mind the slightly contrived ending. Boomers and millennials alike will be satisfied. Agent: Kerry D’Agostino, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)