Someone Knows

Romance novelist Keeland follows up her suspense debut, The Unraveling, with an intense thriller about a college teacher trying to keep her past buried. New York City creative writing instructor Elizabeth Davis is grading assignments when she receives a submission from an unknown student named Hannah Greer. It’s the first chapter of a novel whose plot mirrors the details of sexual abuse Elizabeth’s friend, Jocelyn, suffered in high school. Additional chapters follow, each more accurate than the last, and Elizabeth fears they’ll culminate in a bombshell: the revelation that, all those years ago, she killed her friend’s abuser. After she tracks Hannah’s IP address to her own Louisiana hometown, Elizabeth returns with hopes of finding and silencing Hannah. There, Elizabeth has a fling with a handsome stranger, who knows more than he lets on. Meanwhile, as she continues searching for Hannah, she learns that her estranged, alcoholic mother is dying of cancer. Keeland keeps her foot on the gas from the first page to the last, and she makes it nearly impossible to root against Elizabeth, despite her transgressions. Readers will be up all night. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Park, Fine & Brower. (June)

This review has been edited to remove a spoiler.