What Remains of Teague House

Adult siblings return to their ancestral Oregon home in Johns’s entertaining if unfocused debut. Each Rawlins sibling has their own baggage: eldest Jon is grieving his wife’s death, middle child Sandra struggles with long-term relationships, and the youngest, Robby, is trying to paper over his recent separation. The three are forced back together when their long-suffering mother, Valerie, finally dies in the cabin their late father built. When the digging of Valerie’s grave unearths the missing body of local mother Gayle Bethested and four other skeletons, the Rawlinses’ dark secrets start to spill out. Might the bodies be connected to their father’s suicide, or to Sandra’s memory of watching him bury something in the forest several years ago? After the case attracts the attention of private detective Maddie Reed, who believes one of the skeletons may belong to her foster sister, more horrors are revealed. The hunt for the truth leads down a treacherous, bloody path that recasts the Rawlinses’ relationships. Told from multiple points of view in intersecting timelines, the plot quickly gets too busy for its own good, but Johns delivers enough atmosphere and suspense to keep the pages turning. Readers will look forward to the author’s next effort. Agent: Alisha West, Victress Literary. (Apr.)