Set in Alexandria, Mississippi, during the 1970s, the story follows twelve-year-old Harriet Cleve Dufresnes as she attempts to solve the decade-old murder of her brother, Robin. Found hanging from a tupelo tree in the family yard when Harriet was an infant, Robin’s death remains an open wound that has paralyzed his mother and left the household in a state of stagnant grief. Armed with a sense of moral absolutism and accompanied by her friend Hely, Harriet targets Danny Ratliff, a local man from a volatile, impoverished family, believing him to be the killer. Her quest for vengeance leads her away from her aunts' sheltered world and into a dangerous confrontation with the region's drug trade and venomous snakes.
Followers of Southern Gothic fiction read this book for its dense atmosphere and its refusal to provide easy resolutions. Readers gain an unvarnished look at the rigid class structures and racial tensions of the American South. The narrative replaces the clarity of a standard mystery with an intricate study of how childhood innocence erodes when faced with adult incompetence and actual physical danger. It serves as a reminder that the desire for justice often clashes with a chaotic reality.
- Published
- 2002
- Language
- EN
