Only the Dead Within

Childs follows The House by the Cemetery with an overstuffed gothic soap opera that lacks the punch of its predecessor. The town of Gold Creek, Mich., is ruled by the wealthy Golds, owners of Gold Memorial Gardens cemetery and funeral home, where the extended family lives together as they wait for late patriarch Gregory Gold’s will to go through probate. Noah Gold, one of Gregory’s sons, tends the graveyard, which local legend maintains is haunted by a ghostly gravedigger. One morning, Noah finds the body of Tyler Hicks, his teenage helper, on the grounds with his head bashed in. After learning of Tyler’s death, Child Protective Services agent Claire Underwood returns to Gold Creek—the setting of her own traumatic childhood—to ensure the safety of Tyler’s younger sibilngs. Noah and Claire team up to probe Tyler’s death, which dredges up difficult memories for Claire about a friend who vanished from the same graveyard when they were teenagers. Soon, their investigation puts them in the crosshairs of a serial killer. Childs piles on inherited traumas and missing persons until the plot is full to bursting, but the underwhelming resolution deflates the built-up tension. This is a letdown. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski, Three Seas Literary. (July)