By Accident

March 29, 2010
Kelly's latest, a delicate novel of grief and recovery, takes readers deep into the mind of a grieving mother. After Laura's son, Whit, dies, she's emotionally paralyzed. Her husband, Russ, is busy with his construction business, and their teen daughter, Ebie, grows disconnected. But when a jovial young arborist named Elliot moves in next door and befriends Laura and Ebie, Laura slowly warms back up to the world, and Elliot, whose fun-loving nature can verge on reckless, takes to Ebie with a Peter Pan–like verve. As it becomes clear that Russ is keeping important secrets from his family, Laura and Elliot's emotional intimacy creepily escalates (is he a substitute for her son? an object of lust?), and Kelly drops in cinematic flashbacks that ratchet up the tension. Kelly's characters—all excellent, except cipherlike Russ—imbue this novel with an understated power. Kelly doesn't go in for the cheap movie-of-the-week melodrama often found in grieving mother fiction, and the reader is much better off for it.