A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho (review)

Although she moved with her mother to New York City the year before she started high school, Finley has spent summers in her father’s small town in Maine so that she can hang out with her best friend, Betty. Now, however, Betty has disappeared and been declared dead, murdered by her boyfriend, Calder, and Finley’s summer is consumed with vengeance. She finds an unexpected ally in Serena, a girl who loved Betty and who also wants to see Calder pay, and they uncover a lot of small-town secrets, including the depth of Betty’s depression and the widespread use of drugs supplied by Finley’s older friend-with-benefits, Owen. As the summer progresses, Finley begins sleeping with both Owen and Serena, and she finds herself in danger from quarters expected and unexpected. There is some deployment of clichéd character types here, ranging from a reluctant drug dealer with a heart of gold to the shady mayor who abuses his power to protect his golden-boy son. However, these characters exist in a setting made for them: a depressed small town in need of an intrepid outsider to upset the complacency that has fallen over them in the aftermath of the trauma—not of losing a girl they didn’t care much about, but of their favored son’s losing his reputation and status. This is where the plot dynamics freshen the mystery and deepen its psychological and ethical impact; it’s a peek into the dark, compromised places of ordinary hearts, made all the more disturbing because of what Finley finds there.