WHAT REMAINS OF TEAGUE HOUSE

Secrets and corpses are buried in the backyard. Whodunit?

Johns’ ambitious debut is built on a series of twists and revelations rooted in the complexity of family relationships. It begins with the death of elderly matriarch Val Rawlins, whose head “bursts like bubbles into sweet relief and darkness” after she notices unsettling activity in the woods behind her house. Before the family reunites at their childhood home, Val’s children, Jon, Sandra, and Rob, are introduced in a handful of short chapters. Also in the mix is Val’s younger sister, Phyllis, who appears in a flashback to 1972, when both she and Val are teenagers. Take-charge Aunt Phil wants to get rid of Teague House; her wish, and Val’s death, are MacGuffins for an investigation stretching back decades. For a good while the plot moves slowly, focusing mostly on family dynamics. It’s accelerated by the discovery of a buried finger and leaps into full speed when the number jumps to five sets of human remains. All the while, its perspective is kaleidoscopic, cycling briskly through the perspectives of the siblings, Aunt Phil, and appealingly rumpled private detective Maddie Reed, whose chapters alone are written in the first person. The mystery, rolling forward from the 1970s, is juxtaposed against the stories of the survivors of this psychologically wounded family. The dogged Maddie comes into sharp focus; members of the family, not so much. An intricate solution is disclosed in tantalizing tidbits, but will the reveal live up to the lengthy foreshadowing?

Complex murder puzzle-cum-dysfunctional family saga.