The Lost Night

October 29, 2018
It’s 2009, at the height of the recession, and Lindsay Bach, the narrator of Bartz’s accomplished debut, and her friends hang out in the hipster haven of the Calhoun Lofts in Bushwick, Brooklyn, living in a haze of concerts, alcohol, and drugs. Late one August night, Edie Iredale, the attention-seeking leader of the group and Lindsay’s best friend, is found dead with a gun in her right hand and a short suicide note open on her computer. Ten years later, Lindsay accepts Edie’s suicide as a devastating part of her past, but when she reconnects with some of her old friends, she discovers that her memory of that fatal night is mysteriously missing. Lindsay begins calling everyone who was at Calhoun that night, digging through old email chains, stalking Facebook accounts, and watching camcorder videos, but what she finds doesn’t bode well for her. As the story hurtles toward its dramatic conclusion, Lindsay realizes she can’t trust anyone, especially not herself. Fans of psychological thrillers will want to see more from this talented newcomer. Author tour. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM.

December 1, 2018
A woman must confront what may lie in her memory's gaps as she investigates what happened to her dead best friend a decade earlier.For the past 10 years, Lindsay has lived with the grief of her best friend's suicide. Edie was the life of the party and only 23 when she was found dead with a gun in her hand in her Brooklyn loft in 2009. As the anniversary of the suicide gets closer, Lindsay meets up with Sarah, an old member of her and Edie's "beautiful little hipster clique." When Sarah offhandedly mentions a detail about that night that Lindsay remembers completely differently, Lindsay realizes there are blanks in her memory from that time--something that's not uncommon when it comes to the boozy party years of her early 20s. Using skills she's honed in her job as a magazine fact checker, Lindsay begins an investigation into the circumstances of Edie's death, first realizing that it was probably a murder and then that she was somehow involved. Can Lindsay handle figuring out who was responsible, even if it means the killer is her? Bartz (Stuff Hipsters Hate, 2010) has written a novel that is as much a portrait of post-recession Brooklyn hipster ennui as it is a thriller; unfortunately, it's also a reminder of how insufferable hipsters could be. It's hard to tell if Bartz wants readers to take Lindsay's and her friends' "like"-peppered speech and emotional immaturity as pointed social commentary or as genuine characterization. Equally problematic is Bartz's near-constant reliance on exposition through dialogue, even at the novel's climax; it weighs what should be a zippy plot down like an anchor.Readers nostalgic for Pabst Blue Ribbons and Molly-fueled ragers should enjoy the world Bartz creates here; those looking for a terse thriller might turn elsewhere.

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DEBUT Lindsay is happy with her life in New York City. She's head fact-checker at a magazine, rents her own apartment, and has friends she can call on for anything. An event that happened a decade ago is long behind her, or so she thinks, until Sarah, a friend from her past, arrives and brings up that fateful night in 2009. Dredging up their drug- and alcohol-riddled past and the night that best friend Edie committed suicide is more than Lindsay bargained for. As her detail-oriented mind goes into overdrive after the conversation with Sarah, she rethinks all she thought she knew about the night Edie died, exploring the gaps in her own memory and playing detective even as others get involved. Debut author Bartz pens a captivating psychological suspense novel full of moving pieces and is expertly paced. The tension is unmatched as the pieces fall into place, but not without the protagonist second-guessing herself. VERDICT This whip-smart and mysterious read is perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins.--Erin Holt, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN