AFTER DARK WITH ROXIE CLARK

Two sisters take a murder investigation into their own hands in this story set in small-town Indiana.

Roxie crafts wildly creative ghost-story tours for the public about Whistler’s local lore, many of them based on her own family’s history. Her embrace of all things macabre is a huge part of her style and identity. However, the grisly killing of her sister Skylar’s boyfriend, Colin, a year earlier hit too close to home for her and has destroyed Skylar, leaving the once-driven student ready to forfeit her spot at Yale and completely retreat from life. When new information spurs Skylar to look into his still unsolved case, Roxie throws her weight behind the effort, hoping it will help her sister turn a corner. Tristan, Roxie’s best friend, is also Colin’s half brother, and their long-standing potential to become more than friends, in addition to the secrets he’s keeping, complicates things. There is a lot packed into the plot, which can feel unwieldy at times, but the central mystery is unpredictable, carefully building tension to the end. Themes of family trauma are nicely balanced by the sisters’ adoring, tough Grandma Gertie. There is also some dissection of Roxie’s experience of feeling like a misfit and the pain it has caused her. All characters seem to be White.

A gripping, if occasionally overstuffed, thriller.