Ghosts of the Missing

Aspiring artist Adair McCrohan, the protagonist of this evocative mystery from Donohoe (Ashes of Fiery Weather), has long been haunted by the never-solved 1995 disappearance of her childhood best friend, Rowan Kinnane, then 12, during the gleefully ghoulish annual pre-Halloween festivities in Culleton, N.Y. Now, in 2010, financial straits and health problems bring Adair back to the Hudson Valley town from Brooklyn to stay with her poet uncle, Michan McCrohan, at the family’s mansion-turned-writers-retreat, where he raised her following her parents’ deaths. As fate would have it, one of the writers in residence, Ciaran Riordan, who also has a personal connection to Rowan, is covertly investigating the girl’s disappearance. Eventually joining forces, the duo start to make some unsettling discoveries—not only about what may have befallen Rowan but also the secrets that have shaped their own lives. Donohoe’s narrative travels liberally between present and past, anchored by her strong Irish-American women. This well-crafted novel will also appeal to literary fiction fans. Agent: Caryn Karmatz Rudy, DeFiore & Co. (Feb.)