A Cupboard Full of Coats

Edwards elegantly braids together the lives of three people whose entangled love for the same woman turns sour in this gut-wrenching and gorgeously lyrical debut novel. Fourteen years after Jinx Jackson's mother was killed, "Lemon," a man mysteriously involved in the events of the murder, shows up at her doorstep with crippling news: the murderer is out of prison. Jinx's first instinct is to run. Full well knowing it's "too late for regret," Lemon wants to "put the record straight." And over a period of three days, Edwards sweeps the reader along a stream of memories revolving around Jinx's mother, who chose an abusive relationship over loneliness. "To know her was to love her," and love her these characters did (and do), each in their own way, but some of that love contributed to her murder "in hot blood." Edwards has drawn complicated characters whose voices are as distinct as the choices they have made. Jinx propels the narrative forward with her raw honesty as she unpacks the "private disgrace" that is her life. Engrossing and human to the core, Edwards's novel wrings the heart in the most tender of ways. (Jun.)