Haven’t Killed in Years

Green’s uneven sophomore thriller (after The Prized Girl) centers on Gwen Tanner, the daughter of a serial killer, who has refashioned herself into an unassuming financial services employee. Approaching 30, Gwen—whose birth name is Marin Haggerty—spends most of her free time sculpting pottery that she destroys before firing it in the kiln. When she was nine, Gwen’s father, Abel, was convicted on eight counts of first-degree murder, and her mother, Reanne, went to prison for aiding and abetting his crimes. Gwen, meanwhile, was sent to an institution for troubled children that eventually set her up with her new identity. Her quiet life is disrupted when a human forearm is left on her doorstep in Boston shortly after Reanne is released from prison. Worried that someone has discovered her real identity, Gwen sheds her office drone persona to become an intrepid gumshoe, going undercover on a “murder tour” offered by a man who’s visited her father in prison and pursuing other leads. The search makes her surprisingly nostalgic for her unstable childhood—and proves that her past has long been closer than she thought. Green ropes readers in with a canny premise and a tantalizing mystery, but the narrative quickly becomes unwieldy, with the relentless pile-on of potential suspects slowing momentum to a crawl. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Brandi Bowles, UTA. (Nov.)