Spiral

Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1940s is the backdrop for this murder mystery, which is built around a girl whose disappearance was never solved. Its premise combines detective work with paranormal elements, and the story is meant to be read alongside The Lovely Bones, The Changeling and Ghosts. Two gifted children with psychic abilities may be the key to the town's future, and small-town cover-ups carry consequences far beyond the local community.

The novel is set in 1944 in Shelby County, where the courts are under heavy scrutiny. Judges overlook the poor, who end up on the wrong side of corrupt lawmakers, and racism is as constant and brutal as the strong, dangerous currents of the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. Long-kept traditions among the powerful come with a steep price.

When the young daughter of a prominent attorney vanishes, the search for the kidnapper uncovers a possible link to a girl hidden away in a county orphanage. It soon becomes clear that she is not the only child who has gone missing, and that the crimes reach deeper into the town's elite than anyone expected. Efforts to find the girls and prevent another abduction stall until an unassuming young African American girl named Tilson, who says she hears from the dead, becomes involved.

Tilson is also the daughter of a powerful local family, and the story follows what she shares with the dead girl and the attorney's daughter as the investigation moves toward answers.