Spiral

Several little girls are missing around Memphis. Unfortunately, the citizens of Greasy Plank are the first to be questioned by the police, for no better reason than the color of their skin. The first disappearance we read about happens in 1938, and several of the characters were witness to the child either being kidnapped or dumped, but no one comes forward for fear of getting the blame for the crime. Years pass and more little girls disappear. Rumors point toward Ramsey Armstrong, an odd man who is not very sociable. Finally, the police think they might have a suspect, a young man named Richard Tilson, who we are told right away is innocent. Is he? Who is responsible for the disappearance of these children and will the jury be able to see past ingrained prejudices to the truth?

This book is being advertised as a page turning thriller. It isn't. For good chunks of the book, the murders are peripheral, mentioned only in passing. It is a very well detailed study of how the murders affect the people of Greasy Plank, focusing on two families in particular, the Tilsons, and the Armstrongs. The Tilsons are the most powerful family in their community and run the only grocery store in town. They are successful, and everyone, especially the matriarch of the family, the extremely opinionated Tammy, work very hard. The Armstrongs come into focus primarily because Tammy has to deal with them. Her oldest son, David, has fallen in love with their Margaret, and they intend to marry. Tammy is less than thrilled, because she thinks that Ramsey is strange, and doesn't want bad blood brought into her family. We also get close to the twins, Janice and Melinda. We focus on how these people grow and how they d! eal with the issues of their day. Time passes during the course of the book and we see them deal with everyday things such as getting married and going to dances, as well as with the accusations and rumors about who is responsible. We watch the events of their lives, and the dialogue, their actions, make these people feel very real, very close to us. I thought the dialogue was a definite strong point, homey, and very honest. There are hard truths faced in this book, but those hard truths are more about the way these people live during a time of great bigotry, more than hard truths about the deaths of children.

If you are looking for a well drawn family drama, then this book will be more to your taste. Ms. Turney is a fine writer who has won many awards and definitely shows an amazing ability for characterization and setting in this book.

Three out of Five trench coats
--Cindy Lynn Speer, GWN Book Reviewer