No body no crime A novel

When the PI who practically raised Mel Tillman dies, she charges Mel, 24 and now a PI herself, with her final job. But for Mel, finding Chloe Harper is more than that. Before she vanished, Chloe was a rancher's daughter, a princess in their rural town, and the girl who's had Mel's heart in her hands since they accidentally killed someone together after Chloe's sweet sixteen. Though they'd kept every aspect of their teenage relationship a secret, Mel was undone by Chloe's disappearance and the tragedies that followed. But the Chloe Harper that Mel is sent to find is not the one she remembers. She's living off the grid, building vicious booby traps, and hiding from a past Mel has no idea about. But she's still Chloe Harper, and Mel could never look away. Character development, typically one of Sharpe's (Barbed Wire Heart, 2018) great strengths, is sacrificed somewhat here for pace. But it's that propulsive pace, jumping between time lines and characters, that makes this sapphic thriller eminently readable. Ultimately a pulse-pounding adventure.

Sharpe (The Girls I've Been) satisfies with this taut thriller featuring a pair of young and resourceful women from opposite sides of the tracks. Rich girl Chloe Harper and trailer park denizen Mel Tillman fall into a secret lesbian relationship after their confrontation with teen drug dealer Toby Dunne ends with them burying his body in the woods on the night of Chloe's 16th birthday. Six years later, they've parted: Chloe has fled to the Canadian wilderness, and Mel has become a PI. Mel's mentor sends her to find Chloe so she can say goodbye to her dying father, but dangerous men are still after her, seeking answers about Toby's death. After Mel tracks down her former flame, the pair rekindle their connection while trying to avoid capture. Dynamic plot twists, shrewd pacing, and well-placed timeline jumps provide sturdy narrative scaffolding, but it's Sharpe's depiction of Chloe and Mel's complicated relationship--both in and out of control in dangerous situations, fiercely protective of one another but careful about what they share--that makes the novel shine. Readers who love rooting for antiheroes, or are hungry for queer stories that don't put queerness at the very center, will adore this. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (July)