WE WERE KINGS

When a teen goes in search of a killer, she discovers that nothing is what it seems.

For as long as 18-year-old Nyla Wagner can recall, she’s had to share her mother’s attention with Frankie, a death row felon and her mother’s closest friend. She knows the story: Two decades ago, the body of Cora King, the 18-year-old daughter of a Kentucky senator, was found in a badly decomposed state in the lake surrounding Cora’s family’s island home. Frankie, who was Cora’s best friend, was charged with the murder based solely on her previous arrest record. Now Frankie’s out of appeals, and her execution date has been set. When a reporter comes looking for Cora’s sister, one Elizabeth King, Nyla discovers that is her mom. She starts with trying to understand why her mother fled from her wealthy family—the two of them have lived a hardscrabble, peripatetic life—then, becoming enmeshed in difficult family dynamics, seeks to prove Frankie’s innocence and find the real killer. Stevens’ sentence-level writing sizzles, effectively conveying both Nyla’s heart and the Kentucky setting. The pacing falters, however, and some of the characters feel one-note, to the point that the climactic scene doesn’t evoke the emotion that it should. Main characters read as White.

Sparkles like a diamond at first but does not fulfill its initial promise.