Where He Left Me

Baart’s moody latest (after Everything We Didn’t Say) finds Midwesterner Sadie Sheridan and her new husband, Felix, heading to the historic Hemlock House, an isolated homestead on a mountain in Washington state’s North Cascades, where Felix grew up. The couple, both academics on sabbatical from their jobs at Newcastle University, plan to disconnect from the world and get to work: her on a new novel, him on astronomical research. When Felix leaves for a conference with the couple’s car and doesn’t come back, Sadie starts to panic. Then she spots strangers lurking on the remote property, and tries to figure out how she might fend for herself until Felix returns. As a dangerous storm sets in, Sadie hunkers down and uncovers game-changing secrets about her husband. The foggy and menacing Pacific Northwest setting generates just as much tension as Baart’s shrewdly coiled plot, and she paints each of her central characters with an exceptionally fine brush. The result is an unsettling portrait of isolation and anxiety that will get under the reader’s skin. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary. (Nov.)