THE DEAD HUSBAND

A Milwaukee mystery writer recently and painfully widowed retreats to her childhood home in aptly named Bury, New Hampshire, to find even less comfort awaiting her there.

The truth is that mostly unsuccessful entrepreneur Riley McKay’s adultery had killed his wife’s love even before a dose of sleeping pills washed down with alcohol killed Riley himself. Now Rose Yates has uprooted her son, Max, 11, from the only life he remembers and brought him into the orbit of her cruel, remote father, wealthy capital manager Logan Yates, mostly because she has nowhere else to go. Rose has been estranged from both her father and her older sister, Cora, for years. Some of the reasons are obvious from the moment Logan Yates shakes his grandson’s hand for the first time; others await the cold-case investigation into the disappearance 22 years ago of the sisters’ 16-year-old schoolmate Caleb Benner. What provokes that investigation, and what kindles Milwaukee Detective Colin Pearson’s interest in Riley McKay’s death, is Rose’s disconcerting habit of writing fictional versions of these mysteries into the novels she publishes as J.L. Sharp—years after Caleb Benner’s disappearance but well in advance of her late husband’s death. It’s clear that the Yateses are a memorably disturbed family, but is the root of the disturbance Rose’s writing, Cora’s bullying, or their father’s abuse? Wilson unveils each revelation of some new betrayal with surgical precision en route to a bittersweet finale.

A harrowing reminder that you really can’t go home again.