Somebody I Used to Know

May 25, 2015
At the start of this satisfying thriller set in a small Ohio college town from Bell (The Forgotten Girl), housing authority caseworker Nick Hansen spots a young woman in a grocery store who bears a startling resemblance to Marissa Minor, the love of his life, who died 20 years earlier at age 20 in a house fire. When Nick approaches her, she flees. The next day the police question him. The woman Nick saw, 20-year-old Emily Joy Russell, has been murdered, and in her pocket was a paper with his name and address on it. In the course of trying to find out about Emily and why she had been looking for him, Nick uncovers heartbreaking crimes from the past. Insights provided by a number of people close to him, including his ex-wife, Gina, force Nick to reevaluate his relationship with Marissa. Distinctive characters and a smartly crafted plot lift this well above the genre average. Author tour. Agent: Laney Katz Becker, Lippincott, Massie, McQuilkin Literary Agents.