Open Flame (A Novel)

The acclaimed author of Bath Haus returns with a queer homage to Rear Window, a twisted novel of obsession and secrets set in an affluent neighborhood.

Years ago, former lawyer Kate Baker’s life burst spectacularly into flame. Now she diligently avoids sobriety as an alley binner—scavenging bottles and cans for cash. But she can't bring herself to stop watching the familiar homes of Ninth Avenue in Guilford Hill. 

Hughes Lee-Jensen recently moved into his dream home on Ninth Ave. With his emotionally distant husband away on business, freelance journalist Hughes finds himself drawn to his very handsome (and very married) next door neighbor, Luke. 

Luke and Serena Henstridge are Ninth Ave's newest arrivals. Their modern mansion is at odds with the rest of the street's historic homes, complete with picture windows offering an intimate portal into the enviable life at Number Twenty-Two—a view neither Kate nor Hughes can pull themselves away from. 

When the unthinkable happens and the Henstridge’s darling only child goes missing from Number Twenty-Two, Hughes’s and Kate’s dangerous obsessions catch up with them—and now two voyeurs face the same questions: how did a child vanish while they were both looking? And who else is watching? Open Flame is a mesmerizing fever dream fueled by unreliable narratives, patient secrets, and a climactic fire so intense, no one it touches will ever be the same.