In the Lonely Backwater

by Valerie Nieman

Seventeen-year-old Maggie Warshauer wants is to leave her stifled life in Filliyaw Creek behind and head to college. An outsider at school and uncertain of her own sexual identity, Maggie longs to start again somewhere new. Inspired by a long-dead biologist's journals, scientific-minded Maggie spends her days sailing, exploring, and categorizing life around her. But when her beautiful cousin Charisse disappears on prom night and is found dead at the marina where Maggie lives, Maggie's plans begin to unravel. A mysterious stranger begins stalking her and a local detective on the case leaves her struggling to hold on to her secrets—her father's alcoholism, her mother's abandonment, a boyfriend who may or may not exist, and her own actions on prom night. As the detective gets closer to finding the truth, and Maggie's stalker is closing in, she is forced to comes to terms with the one person who might hold the answers—herself.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, Novels, Nature

235 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2022

About the author

Upon the Corner of the Moon: A Tale of the Macbeths, is the first of two novels about the rise of Scotland in the 11th century and the historical Macbeths who shaped it. Deeply researched, it has a speculative element in the creation of an ancient goddess religion. “Steeped in the myth, mystery, politics, and culture of Celtic Scotland, Upon the Corner of the Moon presents the world of the young Lady Macbeth and Macbeth with authenticity, a deft hand, and a poet’s voice,” says Susan Fraser King, author of Lady Macbeth: A Novel.

Dead Hand, the sequel to To the Bones, a genre-bending folk horror/mystery set in coal country that was shortlisted for both the Manly Wade Wellman Award and the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Available in print and e-book on Amazon.
"...a hard-fought battle, from West Virginia to Ireland, for a future free from legacies of pain and plunder. Nieman crafts a richly atmospheric folk horror tale with a thumping heart of environmental justice; like Manly Wade Wellman for a new generation.”—Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark

In the Lonely Backwater received the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best book of fiction by a North Carolina writer. Past recipients include Jason Mott, Lee Smith, Allen Gurganus, Charles Frazier et al. The book also was named winner in the Mystery/Suspense category of the American Writing Awards and was a finalist at Foreword Reviews.
The novel is "a page-turning psychological thriller" and "an intricate and intriguing work of art." With a style both Southern Gothic and realist, and its deep immersion in nature, the novel appeals to lovers of suspense and YA reader alike. "Nieman achieves a suspenseful narrative full of compassion, haunting, and desire, and instruction about the power of storytelling" wrote another reviewer.

My most recent poetry book, "Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse," is set in a mid-century carnival sideshow and features poems that have appeared in The Missouri Review, Chautauqua, and other journals. More than 15 years of writing -- and a week of study at Coney Island Museum -- went into telling the story of Dinah and The Professor.

My first novel, Neena Gathering, a post-apocalyptic tale set in West Virginia, was reissued as a classic in the genre, and is also available on Audible.

I've been a doughnut-maker, farmer, reporter, sailor, professor, and always, a walker and observer. All my experiences find their way into my work, from memories of high school drama to a visit to the working face of a coal mine to the insights gleaned from working the police beat at a small-town newspaper.

I have held grants from the NEA, North Carolina and West Virginia arts councils. I earned degrees from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.

Follow me on Facebook @valerienieman1, and on Instagram and Twitter @valnieman. My Youtube channel has reading videos and more.

Reviews

[Tonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who killed Charisse? Is her nature loving cousin to blame? The reader is immediately thrust into the lonely, haunting adolescent life of Maggie. Living on a dilapidated houseboat, Maggie shares her rural, observational life filled with nature, loneliness and mystery. The details of her cousin’s death is slowly revealed in an unexpected twist, leaving many suspects in its wake. Atmospheric and heartbreaking describe this suspenseful story. Thank you BookSirens for my copy.

[Marjorie Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what a splendid misery teenaged Maggie feels, and what a splendid character! Abandoned by her self-absorbed pretty mother, an outsider at school, Maggie takes comfort in an obsessive study of the daily life of Carl Linaeus, the historic creator of species and family organizational categories for plants. As Maggie's family is an outlier, outside the mainstream of acceptable forms, this fascination for finding a proper place for things is an apt metaphor. Caretaking her miserable, but loving father, Maggie practically runs the family lakeside store, taking her own comforts in Mountain Dew and box Mac N Cheese--what the store has to offer -- and in sailing her small boat as far away as possible within the confines of a small lake. In the midst of this lonely life comes a death - a murder? - and a terrifying mystery. Maggie yearns for a boyfriend, yet grapples with her own sexual identity, shunning her mother's pretty, artificial world. I would pay good money to meet the detective who becomes Maggie's regular visitor as this story unfolds. He is a classic sleuth, full of quirky insights and a terrible understanding of the pain in the girl before him.

For its love of science, for its all-too-accurate teen misery, for its twists and turns, and finally, for the double twist at the end, I'm in love with this book! In addition to being a powerful story of how a teenage girl can save her own life, is also a meditation on how to re-create your world if you find it lacking in any category that can possibly include you. Spooky bordering on terrifying, with a mind-blowing resolution.

Valerie Nieman writes eco-horror, post-apocalyptic, and literary novels, as well as poetry. She uses all her skill and sleight-of-hand here in a novel that crosses genres between adult and YA fiction. Anyone who remembers what it was like to be an outsider in high school (weren't we all?) -- and how they reinvented themselves-- will nod in recognition as Maggie makes her way into a dark journey of re-invention of the self.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This coming-of-age novel is coupled with an unreliable narrator, Maggie. Maggie is trying to figure out who she is in this small town with few friends and an obsession with nature fueled by a book by Carl Linaeus that details botany and insects and other parts of nature. Her living situation isn't the best as her mother ran off when she was younger and she lives with her father on a houseboat. While this sounds like a wonderful life, plus it is a plus if she wants to study marine biology, things aren't well as they could be with a father that tends to drink and become maudlin pining for his wife. But despite the dysfunctional family, it seems to work for them.

There is a mystery as to who killed Maggie's cousin Charisse. The search and anticipation of waiting for the killer to be revealed is actually a twist in the tale at the very end and what you thought you knew to be true is not. While I may not have come to the same conclusion, I had my suspicions about how the story might end. There were multiple suspects, known and unknown, and the final revelation was not quite what I expected.

Maggie has a lot of angst for a teenager, but perhaps that is not surprising because she is a teenager and her actions and reactions were typical for someone of her age. She didn't mind being alone but at the same time, she longed for friendships and perhaps even a boyfriend. Hopefully, things will change once she gets to college and into a larger town with more people. She is the kind of character that you want to see good things happen to in the future.

The story does flip around a lot and there are some chapters that were focused on nature or her adventures but didn't do much to move the plot along. Perhaps they were designed to give us more insight into Maggie? I did find myself skipping through those chapters since I didn't feel it added to the story but detracted it in a way. I also don't think I would consider this a thriller. I do think it might be more literary fiction delving into symbolism for Maggie and her life.

Overall, it was an interesting read and we give it 4 paws up.

[Lauren Harr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once you step into Maggie's head, you won't want to come back out. She's fascinating--a gifted sailor, a loner, a deep lover and observer of the natural world. What she isn't is honest with herself, or anyone else, seemingly. My favorite unreliable narrator ever in a story that keeps twisting, turning, and winding through beautiful territory.

[Karla Huebner]

The year's almost half over, and this is one of the very best books I've read in the past six months. Maggie Warshauer, a mostly loner high school student living with her loving but drunken father on a decaying houseboat in rural North Carolina, is an unreliable narrator who spends her days sailing and working at the marina and wants to become a marine biologist. Her very different cousin Charisse, wealthy and pretty and privileged but brought up in a "purity" culture that forbids sexual intercourse but tacitly allows everything else, is found dead on one of the boats after prom and it looks probable that she was murdered. As Maggie and Charisse were not friends and had recently fought, a certain degree of suspicion falls on Maggie. But suspicion also falls elsewhere as the months go by.

This is a wonderfully told story of adolescence and place. Maggie is an unforgettable character, one many of us would have enjoyed spending our teens with despite her tendency to withhold information. The narrative voice is gorgeous, regional without being in dialect, and the evocation of nature and the various kinds of boats at the marina is just one of the many elements pulling the reader in. This is a novel that both teens and adults, of any gender, can be rapidly seduced by. It's a great one to read in the summer while camping, but can be enjoyed in any season of the year.

[Deb Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite kind of read. IN THE LONELY BACKWATER is atmospheric, lonesome, relatable, layered and rich with mystery. In fact, it's sort of a meta-exploration on what loneliness is, in that we are deep inside the head of Maggie in a way that makes her something much more than an unreliable narrator. She's a character who is stepping into what self awareness itself might mean, and so right before our eyes she is creating the scaffolding she'll need to investigate the mysteries of herself. She's an outsider on many levels, suffering in a primal way because of her mother, and she's at a vulnerable age, but while her aches are particular they are also universally relatable to teens and adults alike. How do we reinvent ourselves out of a dead end when we don't truly know ourselves in the first place or trust that we'll be okay?

On a story level we have a wonderful pageturner in a death that might be a murder, and that gives us a compelling sleuth who is trying to resolve the mysteries. I enjoyed all of Maggies preoccupations and fixations as well as the descriptions of sailing. The language is top notch, pulling us deep into nail-biting scenes with an incredibly rewarding ending that begs the reader to start again at the beginning.

[Landis Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lake Living on the Teenage Edge of Survival

This first person narrative of the lonely life of Maggie Warshauer, a high school student living in a boathouse with her father and helping work the docks and marina store is seemingly peaceful until it’s not. When there is a murder of another high school student whose body is found at the marina, attention turns to Maggie, the last person to see the victim alive. All Maggie wants is out, but she has to bide her time, and while she does, she feels like she’s being followed. The story demonstrates what it’s like to taste, feel and smell life in the backwater in a dysfunctional family. The ending will make you want to go back and read the clues you missed.

[Gary Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A intriguing murder mystery, coming of age story, and meditation on the natural world weaved seamlessly together into a novel that is hard to put down. Maggie, the main character, is an utter original with observations that are wry, witty, and often heartbreaking. Elegantly crafted and expertly plotted, a novel that will appeal to both YA and adult readers and anyone craving just a really good whodunit. Highly recommended!

[Jennifer (novels_and_daydreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder shocks a small North Carolina town in this chilling and award-winning YA mystery.

Maggie Warshauer is a misfit and loner who excels at keeping secrets. The ordinary, intellectual, and athletic daughter of an alcoholic, living in a troubled home, Maggie is an outcast at school who—inspired by the writings of Linnaeus—fancies herself a naturalist. She dreams of escaping her bleak life in Filliyaw Creek and spends most of her time exploring the backwater in her beloved sailboat and cataloging her findings. When her cousin, Cherisse, goes missing on prom night and her body is later found at the marina where Maggie lives and works, Maggie becomes a prime suspect in her murder. Maggie denies any involvement but the competent Detective Vann knows she was the last person to see Cherisse alive and suspects Maggie isn’t telling him the whole truth.

Maggie retreats into herself and into the backwater surrounding the marina and through first person narrative we learn that she continues to struggle with her own conflicted emotions and to withhold pertinent information from Det. Vann. When a neighbor is attacked, her father and the detective realize Maggie is the target of a stalker and warn her not to go out in the backwater alone or risk being the next murder victim. But is her stalker the only person to be afraid of?

This suspenseful and twisting novel will keep you guessing and still surprise you in the end. While Maggie is a bit odd by typical standards she is also relatable as a young, confused teen on the cusp of womanhood. The main plot of the story is interspersed with Maggie’s findings as a naturalist and observations of the wilderness around her, as well as letters from Maggie’s father to her “so-called mother,” and conversations between other townsfolk. This alternating narrative was somewhat confusing at times but ultimately the story as a whole was engaging and entertaining. The unpredictable and unexpected final twist was icing on the cake. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5

[Rebecca Hodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and wonderfully textured, IN THE LONELY BACKWATER is part mystery, part coming-of-age story. Main character Maggie doesn’t fit in—motherless and living in a marina with her alcoholic father, her outlier status is further confirmed by her passion for natural science. But when she is swept into a murder investigation that also includes a stalker, her life becomes even harder to balance. Although categorized as YA, this is a story that will also delight adults.

[Jeanne Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was bowled over by the wonderful descriptions of landscape, waterscape, and the deft writing about handling boats and marina life. The voice of the teenage main character, Maggie, rings true, as does her fraught relationship with her alcoholic father, her bitterness over the mother who abandoned them, and her awkwardness as an outsider--both to0 smart and too "lower class"--in her high school universe. You could understand her escape into an invented relationship with an idealized boyfriend, as well as her fixation on observing and categorizing the natural world, to bring order to her disordered life, as does her vibe with the fatherly detective investigating the murder of her young, beautiful cousin. I felt like we don't hear about one of the suspects until kinda late in the plot, when Maggie speaks to the detective about something that happened "last week" that she hadn't "told us" (first-person narrative) yet. However, much of the other aspects of the mystery unfold more naturally, and I didn't predict the twist at the end--that makes for a satisfying read!

[Cassie Bustamante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! It's a well-written piece of YA fiction mixed with a thrilled. Anyone who has ever been an outsider will relate to the story's main character, Maggie. She's a 17-year-old with an inquisitive mind when it comes to nature and loves to classify things she discovers in their proper natural order, a juxtaposition for the life she lives that is much out of control — a mother who's abandoned her and a father who's an alcoholic. When her bullying cousin winds up dead, the town searches for answers that only she may know. This book gave me very strong Where the Crawdads Sing vibes. Absolutely loved it!

[Gerry Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Valerie Nieman's IN THE LONELY BACKWATER, Maggie, the teen-aged protagonist, is uncomfortable in her own skin, uncertain about who she is, and coping with her alcoholic father and absent mother. The story takes a dramatic turn when Maggie's cousin is murdered, and Maggie becomes both suspect and a target of the killer. IN THE LONELY BACKWATER is a sensitive portrayal of a girl on the verge of womanhood struggling with the hardships and dark secrets that threaten to hold her back. To see Maggie persevere makes for a deeply satisfying read.

[Judith Turner-Yamamoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Maggie, Valerie Nieman gives us a coming of age character for the ages, one rich in the uncertainty and curiosity that illuminates our shared humanity. Whether you are seventeen or seventy, Nieman has gifts and wisdom for you from a place so real you can smell it. I highly recommend this book.

[Grace Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, I'm reading it again! Outsider (and for all intents and purposes) motherless Maggie makes her way with pluck, nerve, and intelligence. Sussing out the natural world, as well as the humans that inhabit it, she fascinates the reader and electrifies the page.

[Brant Wansley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding! Could not put this book down.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make that 4.7 stars

I've learned that author Val Nieman always takes readers to places they least expect to go, into minds that work differently, places that, by their isolation, are ripe for mystery development.

"In the Lonely Backwater" is another twisty novel that illustrates that perfectly.

And the ending left me gobsmacked. Really didn't see it coming, although there are plenty of hints along the way.

Nieman has developed the protagonist, Maggie, a lonely teenager, into the kind of heroine you naturally pull for. There she is, middle of nowhere, at a dead-end marina with her alcoholic father. Her mother has abandoned her to live a more expensive and expansive life. She has only a handful of friends, all misfits like her.

When Charisse, the local glamour girl, ends up dead in a boat at the marina, the sheriff immediately suspects Maggie and her oddball friends.

Charisse is Maggie's fancy cousin, though she has a bad reputation.

What follows is a coming-of-age novel with Gothic elements that keeps the reader glued to the pages.

Neiman gives Maggie a few interesting obsessions: She is fascinated and comforted by scientific classification, and by sailing her small boat. The classification makes sense of her non-sensical world; the sailing gives her the freedom she longs for — freedom from taking care of her alcoholic father, free from the confines of society's definition of who she should be, free from the fear and worry Charisse's death has created.

Maggie is a modern-day protagonist, seeking to be gender neutral, but desperate for love — from someone, anyone.

The interplay between Maggie and the Sheriff is so bittersweet; the man genuinely cares for her, and genuinely believes she knows more than she's telling.

As the story weaves in and out of the backwater, around the nothing town and deep in our imagination, it raises more questions than whodunit. It asks who we really are, deep inside. It highlights the fact that emotional neglect can have terrible toll, and that even the dreams we once held are apt to fail.

A little more character development for Maggie's boys would have increased the tension. But Nieman does a great job of keeping everything close, painfully close, and of creating lots of twists and red herrings.

Her attention to place will have readers feeling hot and bothered, and creates an atmosphere where anything can happen.

[Caesar Campana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Valerie Nieman’s, In the Lonely Backwater. This is fantastic novel on many levels.

First, Nieman is amazing with her sensuous, detailed descriptions of the natural surrounds, especially the way she paints the seasonal changes. I could smell the lake on the hottest day of summer in the same way I could see the winter “black walnuts…bare, the pinnate leaves falling earliest and then coming apart on the first floor.” Somewhere, Pat Conroy is smiling.

Next, this is an intriguing murder mystery, especially as we watch our (almost) innocent protagonist attempt to solve the gruesome death of her cousin. Neiman’s narration teases you at every step of the investigation. At one point you will honestly believe any of the dozen characters is the murderer.

Finally, most importantly, In the Lonely Backwater is a wonderful coming-of-age story about Maggie, a high school student, abandoned by her “so called” mother and living with a drunken father. Maggie is searching for her self-identity by categorizing the bugs, birds and people who float into her worn, marina-universe. The lake where she lives is small but her (imaginative) worldly perspective makes up for her restricted surroundings. She has an inferior complex as she sits among (most of) her high school peers, but she also understands how powerful her (hidden) strengths are. She is Gene Forrester from A Separate Peace but (most importantly) she is also Katniss from The Hunger Games.

[John Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is less a mystery than a coming of age/figuring out life story. Maggie lives much of her life in her head, is highly responsible, and loves to sail her small vessel. She has friends, but as the story progresses, they abandon her. First, her cousin Charisse vanishes, only to turn up dead a few days later, another friend can no longer tolerate his family's rigidity and runs away, while the third gets a girlfriend and is forced to distance himself to keep that relationship. Her mother abandoned her when she was very small, and her father who manages a slowly dying marina, is in the process of drinking himself to death.
While Charisse's possible murder is initially the driving force here, the story expands to include Maggie's fascination with stolen writings by Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist describing an expedition to Lapland, they turn her into a careful observer, not only of nature, but of people.
Her descriptions of sailing, the people around her, and her sailing trips, all enhance the story. While some readers will deduce what really happened to Charisse before it's revealed, that seems secondary to Maggie's sorting life out and surviving. Altogether a fine work of fiction.

[Carolyn Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s almost a rite of passage for teenagers to feel stuck in a nowhere place, hemmed in by their parents and dull surroundings and aching to be free. Maggie, the high-school heroine of Valerie Nieman’s young-adult novel, “In the Lonely Backwater,” has it worse than most, marooned with her alcoholic father at the poky North Carolina marina where they both live and work. But with the mysterious death of Maggie’s young cousin on one of the lake’s houseboats, Nieman transforms her coming-of-age tale into an unusual kind of detective story, with Maggie shrewdly and unshrinkingly interrogating her own life. Through the turmoil of the ensuing police investigation, family issues, threats from strangers, changing friendships, and her own sheer loneliness, Maggie’s flinty attitude and practical self-reliance become both revealing of her character and a public mask she puts on, keeping the reader on edge about who Maggie is and who she wants to be until the very end. “In the Lonely Backwater” unveils a young person who faces adulthood, not fearfully, cluelessly or helplessly, but fully alert and in possession of tools that she intently sharpens to her purpose. Nieman’s is an eye-opener of a tale.

[Frank Morelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dark yet hopeful tone of Nieman's writing style in this novel is the ideal pairing for a first-person teen narrator thrust into the dead-center of a hunt for a murderer who may just be her. Not only are the characters authentic, imperfect in the best possible ways, and indelibly painted, but the small Carolina village setting with its spine-tingling marina, along with its mysterious origins, becomes an instant character in its own right. Nieman's protagonist, Maggie, is a complex and beautifully constructed outsider in her own town whose coming-of-age journey is punctuated by the thrilling psychological mystery that confronts her, constantly blurring the lines between fiction and reality, moral and immoral, and never failing to keep the reader glued to the edge of the seat. Nieman succeeds in creating a story that opens a window into the imperfection with which we process memories and how that becomes a factor in our determination of identity. At the same time, she weaves a tale through the natural world that makes one question what is more dangerous: the world beyond our doorsteps, or humanity itself?

[Meredith Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The voice of Maggie is intelligent and charming, and I love her passion for her lake and her North Carolina woods as well as the memoir by her Carl Linnaeus, whose Lachesus Laponica, or A Tour in Lapland, written in 1811, is her favorite reading matter. Even though the novel has a murder, don't expect a standard mystery: Nieman is less interested in violence and her villain than in the flawed but ordinary people around the marina. Maggie's relationship with her alcoholic father is well-portrayed and moving. She may not be able to depend on him to be sober, and she may have to be responsible or herself far beyond what a girl just finishing high school ought to be, but there is also a lot of love there.

Like all the best novels, this one is not about its last page, but about the journey and the voice.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is how I remembered it."

Maggie Warshauer is a teen misfit in a rather misfit town, on the backwater Filliyaw Creek in NC: she lives in a shabby houseboat with an alcoholic father, helps him run the deteriorating marina and store, and could not be more unlike her popular, socialite cousin, Charisse. When Charisse disappears on prom night and is later found dead, Maggie is embroiled in the ensuing investigation and in a dangerous situation of her own.

Maggie's fascination with the flora and fauna of her region meshes flawlessly with the traumas with which she struggles. Nieman's story, even amid the tension and mystery, rocks gently along like the boats that feature so strongly in Maggie's life. On the surface this is a murder mystery; but there is so much more to unravel in Maggie's life, both real and imagined.

[Jerriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this read as it was a mystery/thriller that kept me guessing the whole time. I loved that the setting was in North Carolina and that it brought up locations throughout the state and everything made geographical sense. The character, Maggie, was complex and evolved throughout the novel. The relationship that has with the men in her life, Det. Vann and her father, show how she can adapt to different situations with different people. The ending was not as expected and ended with a bit of unknown. I am still uncertain of the connection between the writings she found in the church and the plot. I understand the categorization similarity, but it seems it may have played a bigger role that I have not reflected upon just yet.

[Bruce Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novels I love tend to fit into one of two categories: the stories I wish I had written, and the ones I know I will never be a skillful enough writer to create.

In the Lonely Backwater fits squarely in the second category. Author Valerie Nieman starts with a complex and compelling main character. Maggie is a bright teenager struggling with poverty, a troubled home life, fitting in at her rural North Carolina high school, and her own sexuality. Nieman then layers in a fascinating murder mystery, in which Maggie is a suspect.

Throw in some great supporting characters (including Maggie’s father and the police detective in charge of the murder investigation) and tons of scientific research, and In the Lonely Backwater is easily one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time. It should come as no surprise that this novel won the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best book of fiction by a North Carolina writer.

As a reader, I’d give this my strongest recommendation. And as a writer, this is a book I’m going to study for ideas to improve my craft. It’s just that good.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite reads of 2023. Nieman's protagonist, Maggie, is more than we see. I loved all the plot twists and fascinating characters. I find myself going back to read pages over and over. Definitely recommend.

[Jessi Waugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read murder mysteries, yet here we are. This smacked strongly of Where the Crawdads Sing, but more local, which I appreciated. Despite being a biology major and science teacher, I found myself skipping the science. I found the protagonist, somewhat whiny, but at least interesting.

[Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this coming-of-age mystery about an awkward teen dealing with a broken family and a dead cousin. But who killed her? Maggie explores the woods and water around the marina where she and her father work, and the author describes the environment beautifully.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good premise, but dang did this move slow! Also, too much unnecessary fluff that didn’t seem to move the plot. Just seemed like filler.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed like this was trying to be a more accessible Crawdads. Not bad but also not amazing...