Girl in the Creek

True crime podcasting and extraterrestrial terror collide in this propulsive if familiar horror novel from Wagner (The Deer Kings), in which a missing person case leads to a series of unsettling discoveries that upend a small mountain town. Erin Harper searches for information about the disappearance of her brother, Bryan, a hiker who vanished into the wilderness surrounding the rustic getaway of Faraday, Colo. With the help of her podcasting friend, Hari, Erin discovers a pattern of mysterious disappearances stretching back years. What is causing people to vanish in the woods, and does it have anything to do with the bioluminescent oddities emerging from a waterlogged corpse the friends discover? These questions drive the plot forward at a steady clip, but Wagner’s answers disappoint. The central murder mystery is shallowly plotted, and genre fans will easily predict the solution. The supernatural elements are far more fun, but much of the worldbuilding feels borrowed from Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy and goes otherwise underdeveloped. It will be an entertaining escape for those who enjoy a formulaic mystery with a spooky twist, but it doesn’t bring much new to the table. (July)