I Found a Body

Brynolf’s witty and original debut centers on the fallout from a 2019 murder. Influencer Kylie May is livestreaming from the English countryside in hopes of convincing her followers that she cares about nature when she stumbles on the nude corpse of a woman named Lana Cottrell. Det. Sgt. Mona Hendricks, a rising star on the Avon and Somerset police force, is put in charge of the subsequent investigation. Mona is also going through a messy divorce and raising a 13-year-old daughter who’s a big fan of Kylie. Nine years later, the case remains unsolved, and an unemployed Mona is living in a tiny bedsit, relying on the help of a cane to get around. Then Kylie, whose recent posts have criticized the police handling of the Cottrell case, shows up and asks Mona to join forces with her so they can finally bring Lana’s killer to justice. Brynolf makes brilliant use of the story’s dual timelines, adding to the mystery with each shift between past and present, and she plays scrupulously fair with her placement of clues. Richly nuanced characters and acerbic insights into the vanity of social media stardom are a bonus. This marks Brynolf as a writer worth keeping tabs on. Agent: Becky Percival, United Agents. (Aug.)