The Ruinous Sweep

 Wynne-Jones. Tim. The Ruinous Sweep. 2018. 388p. ISBN 9780763697457. 

Donovan doesn't remember how he got into this car. The driver is chatty, and he asks him questions Donovan can't answer, because he has no memories of what happened earlier. All he knows is that he needs to make contact with his girlfriend Beatrice, as there is something very important he needs to tell her, if only he could grasp it again.

Bee is the first one called after Donovan was brought to the hospital following a hit and run three houses down from his home on a quiet street. With multiple injuries, the staff at the hospital is not optimistic about his chances of survival. With his mother and stepfather off camping in the woods, and with his father missing, Bee is the only family Donovan's got. Sitting by him, she hears him whispers disparate sounds, and she decides to record everything he says, in case it will be helpful.

When Bee is visited by police officers, she realizes it was not a random accident. Donovan's father is dead, and Donovan is the last one who saw him. The baseball bat used to kill him is Donovan's, and the police suspects that he might have killed his father before throwing himself in front of a jacked-up red pickup truck to kill himself. Bee is not buying it, despite Donovan's whispers that indicate he might have done just that. First, there's the missing pickup. Then why would Donovan be three houses away from his home, on the wrong side of the street, heading to a dead end? Bee decides to investigate further.

Meanwhile, Donovan encounters people from his past, and they try to help him go back to Bee. Several times he's able to call her on his phone, but her voice is muffled and she's not very expressive. He does manage to give her several pieces of information, but he doesn't remember why they are important. As he begins to recall what happened earlier that evening, his encounter with his father looms large, and it is as if his father is either chasing him along, or leading him on towards an unknown destination. Can Donovan and Bee manage to reconnect so that together they can shed light on what happened to him?

Told from alternating perspectives, this murder mystery is partly inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, the first part of which is The Inferno. Bee is determined to solve this mystery, even if it puts her in danger, and Donovan is just as motivated making it back to her. A boy with a short temper and a dysfunctional father, Donovan has all of the motives to have killed his father, but Bee doesn't believe he would be capable. Fans of mystery will enjoy this tale, even if the conclusion seems too perfect.