An out-of-work academic works to solve a baffling family murder in Elliott’s mystery novel.

Anthropologist Brian Coleman studies the history of human sacrifice; when one of the students at the Southern Baptist college where he teaches attempts (while half-naked) to replicate an ancient ritual involving snakes in the middle of the school’s quad, the adjunct professor finds himself out of a job. Brian returns in failure to his hometown outside of Boston, where his brother, Ethan, serves as caretaker to their ailing mother. Ethan suggests that, with Brian’s rare expertise in the violent things people do to one another, he might try his hand at writing true crime. “It’s crazy popular,” Ethan asserts. “I’ve seen these true crime authors on TV shows and most of them seem like total hacks to me. If they can do it, maybe you can do it, too.” It’s not as crazy as it sounds—Brian’s old high school crush, Nellie Mahon, has been embroiled in an unsolved criminal case ever since her husband and children were murdered during a home invasion eight years earlier. One of the invaders died that night, but Nellie is committed to bringing the other to justice, and Brian might be just the expert to help her do it. The case quickly turns out to be much more complicated than it seems, with connections that run throughout Brian’s hometown involving people he hasn’t thought of in years in ways he could never have imagined. The author’s talents as a prose writer lend weight (and humor) to what might otherwise seem a contrived premise: “The old neighborhood was a claustrophobic blend of dark and light, the glow of electric candles behind the windows of compact little colonials packed close together under sparse, sputtering streetlights, their roofs and the yards in front of them coated in old snow as neatly trimmed as cake icing.” Not all of the twists are completely believable, nor is the ending totally satisfying, but Elliot provides a fun ride from start to finish.

A finely wrought page-turner, both funny and disturbing.