Odd that teenage Mariah Dunning thinks she spots her vanished mother across a crowded food court; her mom, Beth, has been presumed murdered, with suspicions falling on her husband. What's odder: two other women named Beth have recently vanished in the vicinity. From a New York Times best-selling author and three-time Edgar nominee; with a six-city tour but a surprisingly smallish first printing.

Three-time Edgar Award nominee Abbott (The Last Minute) returns, with this latest novel centered on three women—Bethany, Beth, and Lizbeth—all literally "gone girls," either missing or murdered. As Mariah Dunning, Beth's daughter, works to clear her father, the prime suspect in her mother's suspected murder, she's convinced she just saw Beth in a mall, though the woman in question flees and can't be found. When a crime blogger ties Beth to the missing Bethany, Mariah wonders why the latter woman would disappear when husband Jake is about to make a fortune selling software. Bethany's mother accuses Jake of murder, but why did her own husband commit suicide? As connections among the three Beths are revealed, the count of potential villains mounts, and other crimes from embezzlement to a hit-and-run killing complicate matters in a dizzying crescendo of sinister events. VERDICT Abbott is a master of misdirection, though multiple red herrings and ever-tightening entanglements lead to a conclusion that some might find confusing. Still, the suspenseful plot with its numerous twists will appeal to readers of Harlan Coben or Gillian Flynn. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/18.]—Ron Terpening, formerly of Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

A year after Beth Dunning disappeared from Lakehaven, Tex., in this gripping if flawed standalone from Thriller Award–winner Abbott (Blame), the primary suspect in the case remains Beth's husband, who's regularly harassed by the Lakehaven police chief and shunned by friends and neighbors. When Beth's grown daughter, Mariah, catches a glimpse of Beth at a local mall, Mariah sets out to find her mother and absolve her father of blame. Aided by a former high school classmate and true-crime blogger, Mariah follows a tenuous link to a second woman with a similar first name: Bethany Curtis, the estranged wife of a tech millionaire, who went missing shortly before Beth did. In her painstaking pursuit of Bethany, Mariah stumbles into a family's twisted web of blackmail, envy, and lies. The answer to the women's disappearances seems to lie with a third "Beth," the elusive Lizbeth, who vanished along with Bethany. Only the heavy-handed conclusion mars this high-voltage psychological thriller. Readers will be riveted until then. Five-city author tour. Agent: Peter Ginsberg, Curtis Brown, Ltd. (Oct.)