Christopher J. Yates's cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare narrative talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates's new book does not disappoint.

Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, a picturesque hamlet some 90 miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends — Patrick, Matthew and Hannah — are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. 26 years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again — with even more devastating results. (From Picador Books)