I was excited to see a copy of What Dies In Summer with the other advance release titles because I was fortunate enough to read this story in draft form. With apologies to eBook devotees, somehow reading it on paper versus a screen made it more "real" to me.
What Dies In Summer is not a book one can “like.” Nor can one fit it neatly into a genre. Big box bookstores don't have a shelf for “Mystery with shades of the supernatural within a coming-of-age story set in the (Gothic) South in the 1960s.” But it works. James Beaudry “Biscuit” Bonham is a compelling hero-in-training storyteller, intelligent enough to realize he is surrounded by more intelligent people (mostly women), and struggling to play his part in solving the rather horrific mysteries around him. Think adolescent Mikael Blomkvist in Texas. He relates at one point “this had the peculiar effect of filling my mind with odd ideas and new angles on things while actually seeming to leave me more ignorant than ever.” “Jimbo” will stick with the reader, and with any luck, readers will be able to meet him again.
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