It begins with the murder of a golden boy, Daniel, by his lifelong best friend, 17-year-old Jonah, who then commits suicide. What comes after? A good deal, starting with the introduction of 16-year-old Evangeline, who is homeless and impoverished, her single-parent mother having abandoned her. Worse, she's pregnant and, tellingly, has known--however briefly--both Daniel and Jonah. Enter Daniel's father, Isaac, a devout Quaker whose wife has left him. He providentially discovers Evangeline bedded down under a tree in his yard and offers her shelter. Finally, there is Lorrie, Jonah's mother and Isaac's neighbor, who reveals a secret that causes a bitter falling-out with Isaac. So, large issues are being considered here: life, death, and religion (Isaac is having a crisis of faith). All of this abundant material is deftly handled by Tompkins, who employs three different and very individual voices to tell her challenging tale: Isaac's and Jonah's stories are told in first person, while Evangeline's is revealed at a remove in third person. The tone? It's almost relentlessly morose and melancholy, but that's not bad; in fact, the novel is very good but emotionally difficult to read. As for the characters: they are examined in microscopic detail, readers coming to know them almost better than they know themselves. Expect some tears before the story ends, but also admire the art that the author brings to this exceptional literary thriller.

Tompkins's intense debut blends a mystery and a depiction of a Quaker community's psychological processing of grief after the death of two teenage boys. Daniel Balch is killed by his childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Jonah Geiger, who then dies by suicide. In the aftermath, Daniel's father, Isaac, a teacher at the high school, takes in an abandoned pregnant 16-year-old girl, Evangeline McKensey, and later wonders if either Jonah or Daniel was the father. Meanwhile, Jonah's widowed mother, Lorrie, helps Isaac with Evangeline, and Isaac's friend and high school principal, Peter Thibodeau, worries about what it would mean for the truth to come out about the pregnancy. Tompkins slowly and tantalizingly draws out the details as Isaac struggles with his faith. Chapters from Jonah's point of view can be wrenching, especially when he reflects on good versus evil and his experiences in Quaker meetings, but at other times they fall flat and feel overstuffed with exposition. Tompkins's strong point is in deepening the emotional complexities of each character's actions with well-placed backstory, as with Lorrie's and Peter's involvement in the stories of Jonah and Evangeline. While anger, loss, and grief dominate the characters' lives, forgiveness and connection ease the pain. At its best, this illuminates the limits of faith when facing the darker corners of human behavior. (Apr.)

Jonah and Daniel, friends from the age of three, are now 16 and still the best of friends. Or are they? Sixteen-year-old Evangeline, recently abandoned by her mother and homeless, meets Jonah and Daniel one fateful day. Two days later all three lives have become inextricably and forever linked as tragedy and fate move in and take over. Two of the three end up dead, and Daniel's normally introverted father is determined to understand how and why. Evangeline is also determined to survive, to make a new life for herself at almost any cost. Through alternating narratives, readers learn the hows and the whys as each character is laid bare. Part mystery and part coming-of-age, this is a finely written tale of love and betrayal, and what happens to those left behind after a mind-blowing tragedy. This is also a salutary lesson in how people can listen but not hear, see but not comprehend even their very best friends or closest family members. How the merest of words, in the most banal and unlikely situations, can precipitate catastrophe. VERDICT Give this heart-wrenching gem to fans of John Green, Jay Asher, Jennifer Niven, and Jeff Zentner. --Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City P.L., VA

A quiet portrayal of troubled lives. Making an appealing debut, Tompkins spins a tender tale of wounded souls anguished by loss and grief, yearning for love and forgiveness. Port Furlong, a small coastal town in Washington state, has been shaken by a tragedy: popular teenager Daniel Balch was murdered by his best friend, Jonah. Jonah is dead, too, killing himself after leaving a confession. The survivors are bowed by sorrow: Daniel's father, Isaac, a divorced high school biology teacher, strains to find consolation in his faith as a Quaker. Jonah's mother, Lorrie, a widow left to raise her young daughter while eking out a living as a nursing assistant, is overwhelmed with shame and guilt. Into their lives--and into Isaac's home--comes Evangeline, a 16-year-old fending for herself after her mother, a drug addict and prostitute, abandoned her. Sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend when she was a young teenager, she is fearful, distrustful--and now pregnant. "The pattern of her life had been set," she reflects, "horrors followed by small reprieves, glimmers of possibility, then wham, everything back to shit." Mysteries lie at the heart of the story: Why did Jonah murder Daniel? How was Evangeline involved with the two boys? Who is her baby's father? But the novel is haunted by deeper mysteries, as well--as Isaac puts it, "the mystery of one person reaching toward another." Isaac fears he never really knew Daniel, a "ridiculously handsome boy who lived life assuming he'd be well received"; but Daniel could be a bully, and Isaac struggles to understand why he never intervened to curb his son's arrogant behavior. Lorrie, too, wonders how well she knew Jonah, how well she understood the depths of his loneliness and rage. Like Anne Tyler and Marilynne Robinson, who explore similar territories of the heart, Tompkins sensitively portrays her characters' pain, isolation, and hard path to redemption. A graceful debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.