BETTER LEFT BURIED

A pair of queer teenagers attempt to unravel the mysteries of a small town’s murderous history.

Lucy is begrudgingly spending her spring break in Haeter Lake, Tennessee, population 1,376, because her mom, the renowned private detective Katy Preston, has made an unexpected detour. She’s there to investigate the death of Pierce, the powerful Anselm family patriarch. Audrey Nelson is at the scene of the crime, stealthily hiding, when Lucy and her mom arrive, and the two teens lock eyes; Lucy doesn’t say anything, though she’s intrigued. While Katy tends to the crime solving, Lucy discovers that her mom has a whole history of her own that’s connected to Haeter Lake that Lucy knows nothing about. Her curiosity piqued, she begins her own investigation, but she’s warned by Arthur Joyce, the town’s longtime librarian, to stop digging around. Audrey and Lucy are attracted to each other and immediately become entwined—and as they grow closer, the stakes ratchet up, especially when the town sheriff looks to pin the murder on Audrey’s mother. But beyond the suffocating grip the Anselm family has on the town, the atmosphere seethes with racist overtones. Audrey (who’s white) and Lucy (whose dad is white and mom is cued Black) are determined to find out the truth—and stay alive while doing so. The chapters alternate between the girls’ first-person perspectives.

An intriguing and quick-moving thrill ride of a whodunit with a fledging amateur detective driving the tension.