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ARC for review.

This debut novel has all the atmosphere of great Southern literature - the humidity, the mixture of "ripeness and rot," that sense of the slightly mystical, that everything is just on the edge of magic (and whether it's white or black is unclear), the slow-moving river (there's always a river) that mirrors the languid nature of the people.

The mystery here unravels in the same way and as a result it's a little more muted that the horrific events warrant: Lucy is a 17 year old girl growing up in her tiny town in the Ozarks. Her mother disappeared under very mysterious circumstances when she was just a baby and now a classmate has been found dead. The shifting point of view between Lucy and Lila, her mother, takes up the first half of the book, and then in the second half there are still chapters from both, plus from secondary characters, including our villain, so the reader always knows more than the characters. It's incredibly successful in creating a sense of dread, as well as place and McHugh knows how to write interesting characters. The rather underwhelming denouement was one of the only weak points in this novel, but, overall, a really good read and this is a writer to watch.