Where the Crawdads Sing

The book opens when two kids find Chase Andrews, former star quarterback and newly engaged local golden boy, in the swamp by the old fire tower, dead.

The story rewinds back 17 years and we're introduced to six year old Kya Clark on the day her mother walks down their sandy lane wearing fake alligator skin heels, carrying a suitcase - never to reappear again. Kya, the youngest of five, sees the family slowly slip away from their abusive and drunk father until it's just the two of them left in the marsh shack. And then one day it's just Kya.

The story flips back and forth in time. Kya, the March Girl, Wolf Child, Miss Missing Link manages on her own, learning to read and take care of herself. But that murder is there, like an itch, nagging in the background as the townspeople of Barkley Cove become sure that Kya is the murderer.

So we've got a mystery and a small handful of possible suspects but what hooked my from the beginning is how Delia Owens renders this strip of land. She's got a wildlife scientist's eye for place, rendering the flora and fauna so vibrantly. (Doesn't hurt that Delia Owens is in fact a wildlife scientist and has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing already.) From Kya's shack to Jumpin's Bait and Gas the marsh comes alive. The herons the colour of grey mist reflecting on blue water, Kya reciting poetry to preening gulls as the marsh's moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog.