Girl A, by Abigail Dean

This debut novel is in the spirit of a couple of other books with “girl” in the title – Gone girl, by Gillian Flynn, and The girl on the train, by Paula Hawkins.  It also draws from the recent case of a family whose many children were kept in captivity for years without detection, and reminiscent of Room, by Emma Donoghue.  Girl A is Alexandria Gracie, now known as Lex.  She is the eldest girl in a family of six, perhaps seven, children, and when she escapes her chains and finds help from a neighbor, the whole horror of the Gracie household comes to light.  The father, a self-proclaimed pastor of his own church and driving force behind their captivity, commits suicide, but the mother is caught and imprisoned.  As the book opens, the mother has just died in prison and named Lex as executor of her estate -- $20,000 dollars and the abandoned house at 11 Moorwoods Road, which are to be divided among the siblings.  This duty will force Lex to revisit not only her awful past, but contact her older brother and younger siblings who have complicated relationships, alliances, and residual trauma.  The book is well-written and very involving, but those troubled by cruelty to children and the long term effects may find it a disturbing read.  342 pp.