All the dark places

An inexplicable murder kicks off Parlato's gripping debut. The day after psychologist Jay Bradley celebrates his 40th birthday with his wife, Molly, and three other couples at their home in Graybridge, Mass., Molly finds Jay dead on his garage office floor with his throat slit, the beginnings of a new book, Abnormal Psychology and the Criminal Mind, open on his computer. Det. Rita Meyers of the Graybridge PD focuses her search for answers on the three couples, as well as Molly, who fears that someone has learned of a terrible secret from her past and her real identity. When the police discover that a young woman went missing six months earlier near the vacation home belonging to Jay's family in Mountclair, N.H., they suspect her disappearance may be tied to Jay's murder and his new book. Tension builds as the action alternates between the first-person narratives of Rita and Molly, who winds up kidnapped and held hostage. Assured pacing matches accomplished characterizations. Parlato is off to a strong start. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary. (Jan.)

A suburban Massachusetts couple's contented veneer is shattered by a murder that leads to, well, some really dark places. Her friends probably could be forgiven for thinking that Molly Bradley is the heroine of a cozy mystery. She lives in lovely Graybridge, Massachusetts; she works in a bookstore; she's married to a psychologist everyone loves. Molly's dreams of happiness end the morning after Dr. Jay Bradley's 40th birthday party, when she awakens to find him dead on the floor of his home office, his throat cut. Det. Rita Myers, whose first-person narrative alternates with Molly's, naturally wants to talk to the friends who gathered for the party. But nothing said by any of them--Molly's BFF, Kim Pearson, and her husband, Josh; Jay's partner, Dr. Elise Westmore, and her husband, Scott; and Jay's hockey buddy, Cal Ferris, and his wife, Laken--can hold a candle to Molly's own history, which was known only to Jay. Abducted as a child along with a friend and neighbor, she was imprisoned in a basement and repeatedly molested, and she's suffered ever since from the dreadful knowledge that the other victim didn't survive. Now the news that Jay was contacting imprisoned felons for a possible book and the discovery in his filing cabinet of a necklace belonging to the missing Annalise Robb threatens to bring Molly's past crashing back into her carefully constructed present. And the phone calls she gets from someone claiming to know all about that basement and determined to return her to captivity force her sorrow at not having children, and even her grief about her husband, into supporting roles as she struggles to take charge of her own life. A creepy debut most notable for the nightmares it finds beneath apparently untroubled surfaces. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.