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A debut novel by award-winning author Holly Goddard Jones, about the people surprisingly connected to the discovery of a dead woman's body in a small town
Thirteen-year-old Emily Houchens doesn't have many friends. She finds more comfort playing make-believe in the woods near her house in Roma, Kentucky, than with her classmates, who find her strange and awkward. When she happens upon a dead body hidden in the woods one day, she decides not to tell anyone about her discovery-a choice that begins to haunt her.
Susanna Mitchell has always been a good girl, the dutiful daughter and wife. While her older sister Ronnie trolled bars for men and often drove home at sunrise, Susanna kept a neat house, a respectable job, and a young daughter. But when Ronnie goes missing and Susanna realizes that she's the only person in Roma who truly cares about her sister's fate, she starts to question her quiet life and its value.
The Next Time You See Me is the story of how one woman's disappearance exposes the ambitions, prejudices, and anxieties of a small southern town and its residents, who are all connected, sometimes in unexpected ways: Emily; Susanna; Tony, a failed baseball star turned detective, aspiring to be the county's first black sheriff; and Wyatt, a fifty-five-year-old factory worker tormented by a past he can't change and by a love he doesn't think he deserves. Their stories converge in a violent climax that reveals not just the mystery of what happened to Ronnie but all of their secret selves.
"The lonely cast of outcasts in The Next Time You See Me has enough heartache for a whole jukebox full of country songs. Holly Goddard Jones spins a tight if heartbreaking tale, always keeping the reader leaning forward."
"So rich in character. I loved the subtlety and complexity of Wyatt and
Sarah, and of course, Susanna, the whole thing woven deftly together
with a light hand. An immensely satisfying and skillful debut novel."
"The Next Time You See Me gives readers all the pleasures of the
best mystery novels as well as the finest literary fiction. No matter
gender, age, or social class, Jones' boundless empathy renders
characters who are vivid, complex, utterly realized. She is an
exceptionally talented writer."
"The Next Time You See Me is an astoundingly good novel. Holly
Goddard Jones writes with authority and a deep generosity about a large
swath of humanity within a small town: Outsiders and insiders,
middle-schoolers and the middle-aged, the violent and the violated, the
lost and the found-and all those in between. The result is simply
mesmerizing."
"Have you turned the last pages of Gillian Flynn's
Gone Girl and don't know what to pick
up next? Try Holly Goddard Jones' debut novel, The Next Time You See Me, which Flynn herself has called 'simply
mesmerizing.' In this page-turner, Jones returns to the territory of her
wonderful story collection, Girl Trouble.
Like Flynn, she not only creates young women with troubles, she also vividly
depicts a part of the country often obscured from view…Jones builds suspense as
she creates problematic small-town America characters. She deftly avoids cliché
in her depiction of the town's outsiders-and insiders."
"Jones ties together the narratives effectively, cycling point of view between the three main players."
"Jones' well-crafted tale captures small-town
nuances while exploring the individual psychologies of her characters and their
struggles."
"The residents of a small Kentucky town react to the disappearance of a local woman in this first novel by short-story writer Jones…[The author] builds intense tension surrounding the choices her flawed but compellingly sympathetic characters make as they fight against lonely isolation within the tight confines of small-town America."
"Jones brilliantly weaves
together story lines from unexpected angles.
Thirteen-year-old Emily Houchens doesn't have many friends. She finds more comfort playing make-believe in the woods near her house in Roma, Kentucky, than with her classmates, who find her strange and awkward. When she happens upon a dead body hidden in the woods one day, she decides not to tell anyone about her discovery-a choice that begins to haunt her.
Susanna Mitchell has always been a good girl, the dutiful daughter and wife. While her older sister Ronnie trolled bars for men and often drove home at sunrise, Susanna kept a neat house, a respectable job, and a young daughter. But when Ronnie goes missing and Susanna realizes that she's the only person in Roma who truly cares about her sister's fate, she starts to question her quiet life and its value.
The Next Time You See Me is the story of how one woman's disappearance exposes the ambitions, prejudices, and anxieties of a small southern town and its residents, who are all connected, sometimes in unexpected ways: Emily; Susanna; Tony, a failed baseball star turned detective, aspiring to be the county's first black sheriff; and Wyatt, a fifty-five-year-old factory worker tormented by a past he can't change and by a love he doesn't think he deserves. Their stories converge in a violent climax that reveals not just the mystery of what happened to Ronnie but all of their secret selves.
"The lonely cast of outcasts in The Next Time You See Me has enough heartache for a whole jukebox full of country songs. Holly Goddard Jones spins a tight if heartbreaking tale, always keeping the reader leaning forward."
"So rich in character. I loved the subtlety and complexity of Wyatt and
Sarah, and of course, Susanna, the whole thing woven deftly together
with a light hand. An immensely satisfying and skillful debut novel."
"The Next Time You See Me gives readers all the pleasures of the
best mystery novels as well as the finest literary fiction. No matter
gender, age, or social class, Jones' boundless empathy renders
characters who are vivid, complex, utterly realized. She is an
exceptionally talented writer."
"The Next Time You See Me is an astoundingly good novel. Holly
Goddard Jones writes with authority and a deep generosity about a large
swath of humanity within a small town: Outsiders and insiders,
middle-schoolers and the middle-aged, the violent and the violated, the
lost and the found-and all those in between. The result is simply
mesmerizing."
"Have you turned the last pages of Gillian Flynn's
Gone Girl and don't know what to pick
up next? Try Holly Goddard Jones' debut novel, The Next Time You See Me, which Flynn herself has called 'simply
mesmerizing.' In this page-turner, Jones returns to the territory of her
wonderful story collection, Girl Trouble.
Like Flynn, she not only creates young women with troubles, she also vividly
depicts a part of the country often obscured from view…Jones builds suspense as
she creates problematic small-town America characters. She deftly avoids cliché
in her depiction of the town's outsiders-and insiders."
"Jones ties together the narratives effectively, cycling point of view between the three main players."
"Jones' well-crafted tale captures small-town
nuances while exploring the individual psychologies of her characters and their
struggles."
"The residents of a small Kentucky town react to the disappearance of a local woman in this first novel by short-story writer Jones…[The author] builds intense tension surrounding the choices her flawed but compellingly sympathetic characters make as they fight against lonely isolation within the tight confines of small-town America."
"Jones brilliantly weaves
together story lines from unexpected angles.