Down by the Riverside
A Shady Grove Book
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When her husband leaves her for a younger woman, Rose Franklin buys a camper and sets off—away from her heartache and anger. She finds herself spending a couple of days in Shady Grove, a camp site along the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas. While there, a respected and well-liked man in the community seems to commit suicide for no apparent reason. Could it somehow be connected to the ancient slave burial ground that he was researching? As Rose comes to know the characters of this small community she begins to unravel the mystery of why a man loses his faith and the consequences of his loss.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Lynn's character-driven first mystery, Rose Franklin, who's left her cheating husband and her home in North Carolina, has hit the road. She's aiming for Arizona, but when her car breaks down in West Memphis, Ark., she's marooned for a few days at Shady Grove Campground. Just as Rose rolls into Shady Grove, the body of the local undertaker, Lawrence Franklin, is found in the Mississippi. Most folks think Franklin killed himself, but Rose begins to suspect something more is going on. The sheriff, for starters, is acting a little peculiar. But this mystery is as much about Rose's self-discovery as it is about her discovering whodunit. Occasionally, Lynn indulges in too much literary embellishment, like a pseudo-poetic litany about Rose's mother, each paragraph for pages beginning with the phrase "Give me back." Lynn needs to trim some of these writerly flourishes, but, regardless, this is a distinguished debut. The distinctive setting and eccentric cast of characters who call Shady Grove home are the setup for a great series.
