Kirjahaku

In this small-town mystery, a retired teacher moves to the Ozark mountains, where her eager manner ruffles some feathers—and unearths dark secrets. Retired schoolteacher Caroline Hudson has moved to Hickory Bend, Missouri, to embrace small-town life. But her eagerness to join the community only rouses the suspicions of longtime residents. Luckily, her friend Terry needs help fixing up the old Hunter’s Mill. Caroline is thrilled to learn about her new home through this historic building—especially when she discovers some fascinating documents hidden in the attic. These documents reveal family secrets of prejudice, pride, murder, and mayhem—just the kind of story that piques Caroline’s curiosity! But some residents would prefer to keep the unpleasantness buried in the past. When someone launches a cover-up as shocking and foolhardy as the original crime, it could bring a permanent end to Caroline’s new career in sleuthing . . .

A tiny Ozark town is haunted by a long-ago crime in this “dynamic, captivating” mystery by the author of Bred to the Bone (Mid-Atlantic Book Review). While visiting her mother in the rural Missouri town of Sycamore Bend, Catherine Hudson and her boyfriend go on a scenic hike—though it gets hard to see much of anything when a dense fog descends upon their trail. Then, in the rapidly fading sunlight, a young, barefoot boy appears, searching for his dog. But before they can even learn his identity, he disappears back into the mist. Catherine’s mother, Caroline, has become increasingly interested in the lives of those around her, even though some would prefer some stories stay in the past. But the retired librarian can’t help herself. Soon, details of a boy’s death eighty years ago begin to unfold—and a much more recent tragedy involving abuse, addiction, and neglect. Caroline won’t rest—and neither will a young victim’s spirit—until justice is done . . .

The 1928 explosion that transformed a West Plains dance hall into a raging inferno sparked feverish national media attention and decades of bitterness in the Missouri town it tore apart. And while the story inspired a popular country song, the firestorm that claimed thirty-nine lives remains an unsolved mystery. In this first book on the notorious catastrophe, Lin Waterhouse presents a clear account of the event and its aftermath that judiciously weighs conflicting testimony and deeply respects the personal anguish experienced by parents forced to identify their children by their clothing and personal trinkets.