“Visitation Street” by Ivy Pochoda (Dennis Lehane Books/Ecco, 320 pgs., $25.99)

Ivy Pochoda’s impressive and atmospheric second novel arrives with a certain set of expectations, which she swiftly transcends. “Visitation Street” is the second release from Dennis Lehane Books, the imprint of HarperCollins with one of the genre’s best at the creative helm (Lehane is the author of such classics as “Gone Baby Gone,” “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island”).

Considering his works, you might imagine Pochoda’s book is also a gritty crime novel. “Visitation Street” is definitely gritty, but it’s less about solving a mystery than taking the pulse of an urban waterfront community teetering on the brink of change.

Set in Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, the story begins on a sultry night when bored teenagers June and Val set off in search of fun, lugging a pink rubber raft. But in the morning, only one girl is found, setting off events that rock the neighborhood and alter the lives of many residents.

Among those most troubled by the disappearance are Jonathan, the formerly wealthy, on-the-verge-of success performer now reduced to alcoholic excess and teaching music to bored students at the nearby Catholic school, and Cree, whose mother’s grief has kept him from filling out his community college application though he longs to flee Red Hook’s projects. Both men are stuck in a place that seems less and less like home.

Pochoda, also author of “The Art of Disappearing,” writes in an urgent yet eloquent style, and she offers poignant insights into the characters as they hope and fail and struggle on.