LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

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Let Me Die in His Footsteps, Lori Roy, Dutton, 2015, 322 pp

Summary from Goodreads:
On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory. Everyone knows Hollerans don’t go near Baines, not since Joseph Carl was buried two decades before, but, armed with a silver-handled flashlight, Annie runs through her family’s lavender fields toward the well on the Baines’ place. At the stroke of midnight, she gazes into the water in search of her future. Not finding what she had hoped for, she turns from the well and when the body she sees there in the moonlight is discovered come morning, Annie will have much to explain and a past to account for. 

My Review: 

This book won the Edgar Award for 2016. Since the prize for mystery novels was created in 1954, I have read eight of the early Edgar winners as part of My Big Fat Reading Project. Four of the first eight winners were written by females and their books were great reads. (See list below.)

I have not read any recent winners and only one in the last decade was written by a woman. The prize has always been given to a mix of well known authors and ones you don't hear much about otherwise. On a whim, I decided to read this year's winner.

It was a whim that paid off. Set in 1950s Kentucky, the story combines coming-of-age, southern themes, family feuds, and love stories with a mystery. Annie has been raised by her aunt since infancy. Along the way she and the reader learn that her birth mother was a wild woman who disappeared right after Annie was born. She has no idea who her father was but it is widely known that a man was hanged in connection with the loss of her real mother's young brother. In fact, it was the last public hanging in the United States.

Annie has that Southern mixed blessing, sometimes called "the sight" but here it is called "the know how." Are the things she "knows" are going to happen really true or just teenage wishful thinking? A great way to put red herrings into the tale.

Because of the 1950s time period (I loved reading about Southern life, tobacco farming, etc in those times) and the back story set in the 1930s, it is almost historical fiction. Annie is a fascinating character. She is actually an orphan, she is smart and brave, and you just want her to be happy. The only thing I never figured out was the meaning of the title. I would be happy to hear thoughts on that from anyone who has read the book.

Lori Roy won an Edgar for Best First Novel a few years ago. She has two earlier novels I'd like to check out. Recommended for Southern fiction fans. 

Edgar Winners written by women in the first decade of the prize:

Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay

Beast in View by Margaret Millar

A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin

(Let Me Die in His Footsteps is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)