The Last Dead Girl
*Starred Review* In this prequel to Dolan’s terrific Bad Things Happen (2009), David Malone (not yet David Loogan) is driving alone at night in upstate New York when he assists Jana Fletcher, who has hit a deer. They hit it off and spend some time together—but 10 days later, Jana is dead, murdered in her own apartment, and David is being questioned by the police. Haunted, he moves into her place and tries to track down her killer. This simple premise only hints at the reading pleasure here. Dolan’s seemingly effortless prose sets off dialogue that surprises and delights, and his intricate plot is simply dazzling: a twisting, shifting labyrinth of events, characters, and motivations, puzzled out on the fly by a sleuth who is bright enough to think things through, brave enough to buck personal danger, and amateur enough to make dumb mistakes (like tailing a cop in a truck with his own name painted on the door). Jana’s story, when we learn it, is horrifying yet beautifully told. After the slightly disappointing Very Bad Men (2011), this trip into David’s past is every bit as good—if not better—than the first time we saw him. --Keir Graff