Unearthing the dead: Jacqueline Bublitz’s new novel expands on themes of self-discovery and female empowerment

Jacqueline Bublitz’s debut, Before You Know My NameIt was many things: a compelling crime story, a celebration of New York – a city that seems particularly close to the Kiwi author’s heart – and a tale of self-discovery and female empowerment.

Leave the Girls BehindBublitz describes it as follows:
Companion rather than a sequel to its debut, it expands on these themes, adding a side order of show tunes and doubling down on the trauma. It also questions the culture’s lurid fascination with “dead girls”, a recurring theme in his first film.

Bublitz once again highlights “hierarchies of victimization,” where some receive little media attention because of their race, social class, or life choices. “Some victims of serial murder were considered ‘less dead’ than victims whose pre-death lives were given greater social value…Only some deaths matter.”

The protagonist, Ruth-Ann Baker, is what you might call a citizen detective; He directs all his energy outside of his bartending job at a popular Manhattan bar to track down a serial killer. (For those who want a real-life account of such obsessive sleuthing, check out Michelle McNamara’s chilling memoirs I will go in the dark.)

Ruth, whose background Bublitz reveals towards the end of the novel, is constantly on guard. He carries a lipstick stun gun and a box of mace for protection.

Others were concerned about his obsessive behavior and he saw therapists who told him it was a result of “unexamined trauma,” but nothing deterred him.

The focus is on a man who was convicted of murdering his childhood friend Beth, who is now dead. Ruth believes Beth’s killer has other victims, and after dropping out of college, she sets her sights on proving the theory.

Years pass, but when he hears that another young girl has disappeared from his old hometown, he suspects that Beth’s killer has an accomplice.

Their investigation is aided by a cast of dead women and members of an online site filled with their sleuth-obsessed friends. like he did Before You Know My Name, Bublitz blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy; The murder victims are given a say in the afterlife (the “daughters” of the title) and become an integral part of the narrative. But none of them have any memory of their own murder, with one simply saying: “When you disappear like that… there are some things people need to remember.” for You.”

The plot can seem unnecessarily complex at points as Ruth travels the world, from New York to Auckland, then Melbourne and Oslo, to record podcast interviews with former partners of serial killers who she believes may have been complicit in their crimes. But Ruth’s determination is reflected in Bublitz’s harsh prose, only softening when he writes about a possible love interest for his suffering hero.

Before You Know My NameIt had a lighter touch, dealing with similarly dark themes. But it’s a story that Bublitz is completely invested in (she has referred to it on social media as “the novel of my heart”).

He has given us a solid, timely and uncompromising novel about male violence against women. Yes, the plot requires some faith from readers, but those who adapt will be rewarded.

Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) comes out October 29.