Swallow the Ghost weaves a murder mystery around two talented Millennials in today’s high-tech world. In her work for a social media marketing company, Jane collaborates with writer-turned-lover Jeremy; their hours together produce a better product than either could have done on their own. Jane’s work successes are offset by a personal life reduced to ritual and unhealthy compulsions. Both her and Jeremy’s emotionally thwarted lives are characterized by loneliness and disconnection from spending their formative years planted in front of a screen. They live life once removed.

When Jane disappears, Jeremy struggles not only to write but to grieve. In the aptly named section “It’s the Internet, Jesse!” an older, frustrated writer tasked with investigating the case faces a maze of complications Sam Spade never dreamed of.

As I read it, there’s a ray of hope late in the book as publisher, friend, and perhaps mentor David Harris gently goads Jeremy into writing again, getting down the smells and specific details of life outside an electronic device, one involving other people. The simple, direct writing he begins to produce proves moving to the reader, even if Jeremy himself may be incapable of appreciating it.

Ms. Montague’s writing bristles with one thing an MFA program can’t teach: intelligence.