Pray for the Girl

March 4, 2019
Souza (The Neighbor) offers a well-intentioned but relentlessly tone-deaf exploration of bigotry and xenophobia in rural America. At the start of the convoluted small-town whodunit, Lucy Abbott—a 33-year-old double-amputee sous chef and former army medic—flees New York City and returns home to Fawn Grove, Maine, after suffering a mental breakdown. She initially won’t leave her sister’s guest room, but then someone stones to death a 15-year-old Afghani refugee outside Fawn Grove. Lucy still has flashbacks of an “honor killing” that she failed to prevent while in Afghanistan, and since the detective on the case—her childhood bully—is virulently anti-immigrant, she decides to solve the murder herself. When the son of a racist white minister turns up dead in a cornfield near a pro-Islamic crop circle, Lucy questions whether somebody from the local immigrant community is responsible. But the more she digs, the less likely that seems—and the more anonymous threats she receives. Unfortunately, manufactured conflict and clunky expository dialogue sap tension, while a series of increasingly preposterous plot twists rob the central mystery of heft and verisimilitude. Hopefully, Souza will do better next time. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

April 1, 2019
Returning to a hometown that holds troublesome memories is a familiar crime-fiction plotline, but Souza (The Neighbor, 2018) adds a suspenseful twist and modern dilemmas to the theme. The tale follows Lucy Abbott as she leaves a successful New York City sous-chef career for Fawn Grove, Maine; her time away from Maine also included military service in Afghanistan, thanks to which she nurses wounds both physical and emotional. Fawn Grove has changed, too, with the town now home to Afghan immigrants who are suspected when one of their own is found stoned to death. Lucy seeks to redeem a wrong she feels she did in Afghanistan by finding the girl's killer. Doing so requires disguises on her part, and it strains credulity that her sister and a former romantic partner wouldn't recognize her. Still, readers who can suspend disbelief will be rewarded by a solid read that poses tough questions about how to help downtrodden towns undergoing social upheaval, a close look at tough personal transformations, and a mystery with a surprising solution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)