This book will bury me A novel

Overcome with grief after her father dies, Jane Sharp finds herself inexplicably drawn to a local murder and the mystery surrounding the victim's death. An internet search leads Jane to a true-crime forum and then, when her savant-like investigation skills help solve the case, to an invitation to join a tight-knit group of sleuths. When three women are brutally murdered in Idaho, Jane and her friends are determined to solve the case first. But this case is unlike any they've ever seen, and they begin to suspect there is more to the investigation than they anticipated. This slow-burn mystery examines the role of amateur sleuths in solving crimes and how a hobby can turn into an obsession. While books that take inspiration from real crimes can come across as exploitative, Winstead manages to take a well-known crime (the 2022 University of Idaho murders) and, borrowing facts from the true story, craft a compelling mystery all her own. Readers will be hooked from the first chapter, and true-crime fans especially will appreciate Winstead's blend of fact and fiction.

The real-life 2022 University of Idaho murders form the bedrock of this disquieting thriller from Winstead (Midnight Is the Darkest Hour). Jane Sharp, 24, has just dropped out of college in Florida and sunk into a profound depression after the death of her father. Seeking distraction, she stumbles into the true crime forums of TheRealCrimeNetwork.com, first as an observer and then as a quasi-vigilante who tries to track down suspects. Soon, Jane forms an alliance with four other true crime obsessives, who fuel her fascination and offer her a sense of belonging through wide-ranging, late-night chats. When three young college students are murdered in an Idaho sorority house, the message boards light up, as users dub the killer the Barbie Butcher and frustrate local police with their relentless speculation. After three more young women are slaughtered, Jane and her fellow online gumshoes decided to meet in person for the first time in the small Idaho town where the murders took place. There, they confront the limitations of parasocial sleuthing and dig up even more darkness than they expected. Winstead ably tackles themes of grief, loneliness, and obsession, but the hefty page count drains the mystery plot of some tension. Still, it's a chilling and thought-provoking effort. Agent: Melissa Edwards, Stonesong. (Mar.)

Winstead (Midnight Is the Darkest Hour; The Last Housewife) crafts another psychologically tortuous novel; this one nods to the genre of dark academia and feels like both a satire of and a homage to true crime. On its surface, it's the story of unsolved murder--the deaths of three college girls in Delphine, ID--and the true crime fans who take justice into their own hands. The compulsively readable story shows how things can be hidden in plain sight, even when the world is watching a crime unfold. Written with footnotes, narrative gaps, and a narrative voice that is unreliable to say the least, the novel spins in unpredictable ways that will keep readers guessing at every police misstep and each personal revelation along the way. VERDICT Between the cheeky humor of TV's Only Murders in the Building and the grim, psychological recasting of facts through fiction and memory (as exemplified by Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl), Winstead's novel breathes life into stories that, the narrator hints, might be better off dead and buried.--Emily Bowles