WHAT SHOULD WE DO INSTEAD OF KILLING OURSELVES?

In this novel, a New York City book editor tries to track down the identity of the author of a long suicide note she wants to publish.

Liz is working as an editorial assistant at a New York publishing house and is conflicted about her job. She wants to be an executive, but the path upward is unclear. As it is, she’s in a cubicle poring through submissions from the slush pile and not finding anything good. It’s a lonely existence, and as a young immigrant from Jamaica, she doesn’t have family in town (“This toothless city is crushing me in its gummy jaws, slowly boring me to death with the whining of all the pretentious New Yorkers who think that title affords them some presumption of ‘toughness’ ”). An envelope arrives from Pittsburgh with a notebook inside, and a curious Liz finds it to be a long-form suicide note. The anonymous author asks if the house will publish the manuscript, but Liz is committed to a truly awful romance that her boss’s boss, Marcus, wants printed. Intrigued, Liz looks up recent obituaries in Pittsburgh, hoping to identify the author. Fatefully, she tells Marcus about the note, and he imagines it as a full-length book. Feeling burdened by the project, Liz travels to Pittsburgh to meet with families of the recently departed to see if they can help name the enigmatic author. Gordon’s premise for her novel is a perfect setup for a story involving sleuthing, self-doubt, and sometimes-unwanted success. Liz is an insightful character with a razor-sharp mind who has plenty to say, and her origins in the Caribbean distance her a little from some of the worn-out American takes on issues. But her frequent complaints about work don’t add up, as her bosses seem to cater to her and give her a significant promotion. The tale’s biggest flaw, though, is the mysterious notebook itself, whose writing is vague, endlessly philosophical, and not very engaging.

A literary mystery with dynamic characters and an investigation that’s more intriguing than its subject.