In Lauren Thoman’s second novel, “You Shouldn’t Be Here,” she pens another engaging mystery that, like her first novel, has a bit of paranormal time travel. Unlike her first novel, “I’ll Stop the World,” in this story the time traveler seems to be a ghost. But as with all well-written mysteries, we don’t understand exactly what is happening until the end. And even then, just like the perplexed characters in the novel, we aren’t completely sure what exactly happened.

Ten years ago, a sixteen-year-old named Angie had a best friend named Bas, short for Sebastián. She’s been hearing strange sounds in the house she shares with her father, a woman’s voice, but no one else seems to be able to hear it, and there’s no woman in the house. Is it a ghost? She is determined to find out and buys occult paraphernalia to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. One night, after hearing a very disturbing conversation between her father and his employer, she and her father disappear. No one in East Henderson knows where they went or why.

Now, Madelyn Zhao wants to find out why her cousin suddenly disappeared. Two years ago, Madelyn was supposed to visit her new-found relative Piper in East Henderson so they could finally meet, when Piper just disappeared. She stopped returning Madelyn’s texts and wouldn’t answer emails. Madelyn just let it go, assuming that Piper had changed her mind about meeting her much younger cousin.

But when she’s contacted by an attorney who informs her that there might have been something nefarious about the disappearance, Madelyn feels she must investigate. Like Madelyn, Piper lost her mother and had no other family. So Madelyn gets a teaching job at the middle school in East Henderson and rents a house from Doug Raymond, the owner of most of the real estate in town and the man for whom Piper worked before her disappearance. He also happens to be the man who was Angie’s father’s employer.

Because of the prologue, we know that Piper was killed because of something she learned about Doug Raymond’s company. We also know, because of an alternating narrative that takes us back to Angie’s time, that something strange has happened to Angie, but we aren’t sure what it is. And what we don’t know is how it will all fit together, because we know with certainty who the bad guy is, the murderer who has killed with impunity for decades. But we don’t know how he will be caught.

Thoman’s writing is fluid and concise, and the action moves the plot along at a breakneck pace. In fact, I read the book in one day, as the characters were relatable and likable and I wanted to find out what happened. While I cringed a bit when the characters decided to do something really dumb (like when the female star in a horror movie goes into the basement where you just know a killer with a knife is waiting…), it’s also a fair representation of real life, where we all make poor decisions occasionally.

The ending is very satisfying, and I’m guessing that this is a read I will remember for a while. The plot is just a bit different from the usual mystery fare with the ghostly voices that remain a mystery even after we find out what they are. It’s a testament to Thoman’s writing that this novel, almost 400 pages, was such a quick read. It was everything one might want in a light mystery: engaging story, twisty plot, likable characters, a really bad guy, a cute dog, a touch of romance, and good friends.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.