SKY COURT

Four high school seniors find their lives intertwined.

Seventeen-year-old Casey keeps her head down and works hard, like her grandpa tells her to. She is excited to finish her last year at River City High and become a Mississippi tugboat captain—maybe even the first Black woman to do so. Her singular focus is broken, however, when a drunk trucker interrupts her shift at the Wise Owl Café: Larry Dale confesses to an accident involving Trevor and Steve, two of Casey’s River City classmates who are fellow Sky Court apartment residents. After hitting the car they were in, Larry found the boys partially undressed inside it and then took off. The accident could expose their relationship before they are ready. New Sky Court neighbor and classmate Rowena, who spent a semester in France, is good friends with Steve’s girlfriend—but lately she’s been interested in getting to know Casey better. Against the backdrop of these precarious personal relationships, Larry’s 7-year-old daughter goes missing. Casey joins the search, stumbling upon more than she bargained for. Mosley’s debut is ambitious, grappling with themes such as sexuality, family, and displacement. Though the novel is stretched thin as it explores each storyline, the characters are fairly well fleshed out by the economical, slightly flat prose. Casey’s lesbian identity is understood and accepted by her grandpa and is refreshingly not a source of conflict. Steve is Black; other main characters are White.

A small-town mystery exploring queer teen relationships.