Fireweed

Haddad debuts with an uneven tale of a naive white woman who tries to help solve the case of a missing Indigenous person in Prince George, B.C.. Jenny, 24, awkwardly befriends her neighbor, Rachelle, shortly before Rachelle goes missing. Jenny then decides to step in and play detective, finding clues in Rachelle’s house and her abandoned car. She’s dismissed by the Mounties, who take less interest in the case than that of a white woman’s recent disappearance. The search for Rachelle amounts to a series of MacGuffins and ultimately serves as a sentimental education for Jenny, who confronts the racism she inherited from her family and friends (“The way people spoke, I was expecting hellfire, a scene worse than the trashiest trailer park.... But the truth was, it looked like any other back road,” she reflects upon visiting an Indigenous reservation). By the third act, Haddad suggests Jenny might be Métis, an intriguing development that doesn’t quite cohere with the rest of the narrative. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Zoe Howard, Howland Literary. (Apr.)