There Are Reasons for This

Berndt debuts with an enticing and off-kilter story about a grieving voyeur who spies on a cuddler for hire. Lucy, 21, moves to Denver from the High Plains in search of answers about her older brother Mikey’s mysterious death nine months earlier. All she knows is that Mikey had run away from home a few years before and ended up in Denver, where he befriended an older woman named Helen. Now, Lucy moves into an apartment across the hall from Helen and watches the 30-year-old through a hole in her door. In chapters from Helen’s perspective, the reader learns that Mikey hired her for cuddling sessions and that their relationship grew more complicated after she introduced him to her wealthy client Raena, who wanted an open marriage despite objections from her husband, a pharmaceutical researcher working on a desire-enhancing drug. As Lucy watches a stream of beautiful young women enter and exit Helen’s apartment, she becomes bolder, and eventually introduces herself. The two start spending time together, and Lucy reveals clues about her purpose in Denver, while Helen doles out details about the hedonistic world she and Mikey fell into and the dangers they encountered with the experimental drug. The character work is as sharp as the plotting in this suspenseful yet introspective narrative. Readers will be gripped. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, UTA. (June)