The Girls Before

Marshall (A Killing Cold) delivers a superb mystery about a seemingly standard search and rescue mission in the small Pacific Northwest town of Franklin. Audrey Dixon is a talented volunteer with her local Search and Rescue department. Franklin has seen more than its share of missing persons—especially young women, including Janie Martin, Audrey’s best friend who vanished years ago, and Meghan Vale, who’s just disappeared. Some residents blame the urban legend of forest witch Jenny Red-Hands for the disappearances, but Audrey doesn’t buy it, nor is she convinced by local police’s assumption that the girls ran off on their own. Newly dedicated to finding Janie in the wake of Meghan’s disappearance, Audrey notices similarities between both disappearances and uncovers evidence that they may involve the city’s most powerful family. Marshall takes a familiar premise and pushes it into exciting, experimental directions, switching perspectives between Audrey and a captive victim, and teasing out the potentially supernatural urban legend at the heart of the story. Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page. Agent: Lauren Spieler, Folio Literary. (Feb.)