Down by the Riverside: A Shady Grove Mystery

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. (June)