Our Last Resort

A pair of siblings see their vacation upended by a murder investigation in this solid nail-biter from Michallon (The Quiet Tenant). On her fourth night at Ara, an exclusive Utah resort, Frida Nilsen overhears a heated argument between tabloid owner William Brenner and his wife Sabrina. The next day, Sabrina is found dead with her skull split open. The tragedy brings up bad memories for Frida and her brother, Gabriel, who’s staying with her at the Ara as part of a strained attempt to reconnect. Nine years earlier, Gabriel’s wife, Annie, was killed after falling from a bridge in New Jersey. He was suspected of murdering her for a life insurance payout, though police never solved the case. Gabriel’s entanglement in Annie’s death leads the authorities to consider him a suspect in Sabrina’s murder. Additional flashbacks flesh out Frida and Gabriel’s childhoods in an Upstate New York cult and tease possible links to the contemporary crimes. Michallon nimbly balances pace, plot, and character, never skewing so literary that she alienates genre fans or so popcorn that the stakes feel flimsy. The result is a robust and memorable whodunit. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. (July)