Yes, The River Knows

Book excerpt: Tracy Dunham’s acclaimed debut Wishful Sinful introduced us to Tal Jefferson—an attorney who fled the big city in disgrace after losing a headline-making case. Now, in the second of this evocative series, Tal must confront the racism simmering beneath the surface of her hometown to solve a vicious murder. Coming back to South Carolina was the best thing Tal Jefferson ever did. Even though she’s still haunted by the ghosts of her past, she’s finally given up the booze and started letting the tranquility of her hometown work its way through her veins. But her life is thrust back into turmoil when she and a high school acquaintance make a gruesome discovery in the Wynnton River. A man has been murdered—and soon, he is identified as the estranged husband of Tal’s secretary, June Atkins. It isn’t long before June is implicated in the crime, and simmering racial tensions rise to the surface in this seemingly peaceful hamlet. Now, in a town full of distrust and self-delusion, Tal must clear June’s name, and save them both from a murderer who’ll do anything to save himself.