Kate Brody blends true-crime obsession, late-night Reddit binges and the day-blending, mind-fracturing effects of grief in her twisty debut, RABBIT HOLE.

Ten years ago, Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom said goodbye to her sister for the last time. A wild child with addictive tendencies, Angie was always at the center of her parents’ fights, her father’s own addiction and Teddy’s anxiety about home. Then one night, she snuck out to go to a party and never returned --- except for a brief midnight snuggle with Teddy, who she woke up when she climbed into her bed before heading out again.

For years Teddy watched as her father became obsessed with the case, turning into his own private investigator, and her mother struggled to maintain the family. Then, just as suddenly as Angie vanished, her father drove his car off a bridge and into the cold, unforgiving water below. Teddy knows grief --- the white-hot fear of forgetting, the ice-cold reckoning with yet another day without her loved one --- but she is about to know obsession too.

"This is deliciously good fiction, both harrowing and heartfelt, propulsive and immersive. It is unique and refreshing, provided that you don’t mind your mysteries with a few loose ends."

Teddy, who had been supplying her parents with her meager teacher’s paycheck to keep them afloat, agrees to help her mother deal with her father’s loose ends on one condition: at some point, she will get to leave and start her own life in the apartment she already has paid for and reserved. But despite the fact that Teddy lived with her parents up until her father’s suicide, even she is shocked by how sick he had become before his death. His “office,” which used to be the girls’ bedroom, is covered in rotting food, crumpled receipts and scribbled notes, all seemingly related to his endless investigation.

Some of the artifacts of his obsession make sense (a Post-it asking, “Mickey --- boyfriend??”) and others not so much, like a $1,000 bill from a psychic. In a cell phone next to her father’s laptop, Teddy finds only three numbers, none of which are hers or her mother’s. When she calls one of them, she hears a familiar voice: Bill, a young man who had done some landscaping work for her father years ago, and who she and Angie swooned over as young teens. Although Teddy quickly rules him out as a suspect, she takes comfort in his simple, uncomplicated demeanor and the rough sex that takes her out of her grief for brief, electrifying moments.

But it is on the internet that Teddy finds the first real clue into her sister’s disappearance and her father’s mindset at the time of his death: a Reddit thread called r/unsolved, closely linked to another, r/AngieAngstrom, where hundreds of people around the world debate what happened to Angie and, even more chillingly, her family’s role in it. Her father, who long struggled with substance abuse issues, is an obvious suspect to the (mostly male) commenters. But Teddy also finds an eerie, horrifying thread related to her and how hot she was at 16, complete with a countdown to her 18th birthday.

Still, only one user stands out to her: MICHAELA345, who seems to have known her father. A little drunk and grieving a lot, Teddy reaches out. Within the week she is driving to a nearby campus to meet 19-year-old Mickey, who could be Angie’s twin. Mickey tells Teddy that she can help her investigate her sister’s disappearance, just like she had been doing for her father.

Before long, Teddy and Mickey are a duo, going so far as to decorate Teddy’s empty apartment to look like a crime-scene investigation room. But as they identify and rule out each and every theory and suspect imaginable, another Reddit user emerges. He says that he was with Angie the night she died --- not disappeared, but died --- and he quickly doxes Teddy when she gets too close. With numerous loose ends, a Reddit thread that reads like a 24-hour news cycle, and Teddy’s obsession growing deeper and more dangerous, Kate Brody places readers directly in Teddy’s grieving, fracturing mind, where the truth ceases to matter.

If the word “smothering” can ever have a positive connotation, let it be reserved for RABBIT HOLE. Although the premise centers on a cold-case crime, the book is a meditation on grief, paranoia and truth. The way that Brody invites readers into her protagonist’s mind is confident and assured, even if the things we find there are not always so straightforward or clear. Living in Teddy’s mind for the duration of the story feels exactly like grief: smothering, all-consuming and desperate, and the novel is incredibly absorbing and immersive as a result.

With the mystery of Angie’s disappearance (and the identities of the Reddit users, as well as Mickey’s connection to Teddy’s father) grounding these more emotional scenes, the book succeeds on multiple levels --- as both a spellbinding character study and a slow burn mystery. At the same time, Brody delivers searing, timely takedowns of our obsession with true crime and our willingness to exploit the tragedies of others for our own enjoyment.

This is deliciously good fiction, both harrowing and heartfelt, propulsive and immersive. It is unique and refreshing, provided that you don’t mind your mysteries with a few loose ends.