Dennis Lehane Didn’t Steer Me Wrong

[Finished 6/25/14] I picked this book up at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square because I had read rapturous reviews of it in  last summer. It did not disappoint. Ivy Pochoda sets this multi-character novel in Red Hook, Brooklyn—a neighborhood trying to be in transition that includes both housing projects and hipsters. The defining moment that ties all the characters together is the disappearance of a teenage girl. Two fifteen year old friends, Val and June, take a plastic raft out onto the water; however, only one, June, makes it back to shore. She is found near dead, by Jonathan, a struggling musician and high school teacher. She can’t remember what happened and the resulting search for Val and theories about what might have happened throw the neighborhood into an uproar.

However, this isn’t just June’s story. It’s the story of Cree, an African American teenager, who is the last one to see both girls alive and who is still mourning the loss of his father, killed in a mugging. It’s the story of Fadi, the owner of a neighborhood corner store, who is hoping the docking of cruise ships in the harbor, will bring customers to his shop and revitalize the neighborhood. It’s the story of Jonathan, who is the son of a Broadway star, who mysteriously drowned when he was a teen, and who feels strangely protective and attracted to the teenage girl he saved.

This book was published under the imprint, Dennis Lehane Books, and I can see why because Pochoda creates a complex and nuanced story and characters that stick in your head long after you finish the book. This might be classified as a mystery, but what happened to Val is less important than the effect her disappearance has on the people around her.