The Next Time You See Me

A debut novel by award-winning author Holly Goddard Jones, about the people surprisingly connected to the discovery of a dead womans body in a small town Thirteen-year-old Emily Houchens doesnt 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 discoverya 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 shes the only person in Roma who truly cares about her sisters fate, she starts to question her quiet life and its value. The Next Time You See Meis the story of how one womans 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 countys first black sheriff; and Wyatt, a fifty-five-year-old factory worker tormented by a past he cant change and by a love he doesnt 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.