The Housemate

In 2005, reporter Oli Groves, the protagonist of this outstanding standalone set in Australia from Bailey (the Gemma Woodstock trilogy), is on the scene in St. Kilda when the police make a grim discovery: the stabbed body of University of Melbourne undergrad Evelyn Stanley in the house she’d shared with two other young women, Nicole Horrowitz, who’s disappeared, and Alexandra Riboni. Alexandra, found drenched in blood and holding a knife from which her DNA and bloody fingerprints are recovered, is charged and convicted of Evelyn’s murder. In 2015, Groves revisits the case, which has become a cause célèbre after a report that Nicole’s body was found hanging from a tree next to a house in a remote community. Oli, who’s now engaged to the widower of one of the original investigating officers, dives into the case again, even as her paper, the Melbourne Today, forces her to work on it as a podcast as well as a straight news story. Logical yet surprising plot twists never overwhelm the sophisticated characterizations that make suspending disbelief almost effortless. The judicious use of flashbacks build tension, and the denouement doesn’t disappoint. Jane Harper readers will be riveted. (Feb.)