Before You Knew My Name

Bublitz’s powerful, heartrending debut follows two jilted women who move to Manhattan. Alice Lee leaves small-town Wisconsin on her 18th birthday after her former teacher ends their affair. Ruby Jones, 36, departs Melbourne, Australia, when she realizes the coworker she’s been sleeping with still intends to marry his fiancée. Though Alice and Ruby arrive in New York almost simultaneously and rent places mere streets from each other, their paths don’t cross until a month later, when someone rapes and murders Alice in Riverside Park, and Ruby finds the corpse. Alice had no wallet and nobody reports her missing, so she becomes a Jane Doe. Her spirit lingers, however, nudging Ruby to investigate the true identity of “Riverside Jane” while living her own life more fully. Alice narrates from beyond the grave, intercutting her and Ruby’s stories to maximize tension, resonance, and drive. Using keenly rendered characters and poignant prose, Bublitz crafts a richly textured, deeply feminist murder mystery that spotlights the victim rather than her killer. Readers will eagerly await Bublitz’s next. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters, Fraser, & Dunlop (U.K.). (Nov.)