Sunday, July 24, 2016

LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS





Shop Indie Bookstores




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.)

 

20 comments:

  1. Sounds fascinating. I might give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you might enjoy both the mystery and the mix of woo woo and down to earth wisdom.

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a solid read. I am glad you liked it. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am very pleased with the books I am reading these days.

      Delete
  3. I don't know this book so alas I don't know what the title refers to. But it did make me curious so I googled it and apparently author Lori Roy has said about the title:
    It’s inspired by a Bob Dylan song written during the Vietnam War. To me, the song was about not succumbing to fear or prejudice. To do so is to put ourselves into a figurative grave before we actually die. The title refers to a certain character in the novel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow Susan, thank you! I will look that up.

      Delete
    2. Bob's song is called Let Me Die in My Footsteps and there is a youtube version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBkwU-Cec2k It was going to be on the 1963 Freewheelin album but got replaced by Hard Rain.

      Delete
    3. Interesting! I like the song -- I hadn't heard it before. Woody Guthrie-ish.

      Delete
    4. I hadn't heard it before either. But Woody was a big influence on early Bob. (I have read at least three full length biographies of Dylan. I am a big fan!)

      Delete
    5. Yeah I imagine you are a big Bob fan being in music and all. I read Dylan's memoir "Chronicles" when it came out which I thought was interesting but I could use another more comprehensive bio book too. What would you say is your favorite album of Bob's? Blood on the Tracks might be mine -- wow.

      Delete
    6. Blood on the Tracks is one of my favs, top fav is probably Blonde on Blonde, but I like all his albums.
      I too have read Chronicles plus three big bios: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton (the most worshipful), Dylan, A Biography by Bob Spitz (a little more critical and maybe more truthful), and The Highway, The Life of Bob Dylan (takes you all the way to 2000 but not as well written.) They are all long, average 500 pp each!

      Delete
  4. Judy, I looked at this one a few times and ended up donating it unread. I guess I'll have to borrow it from the library.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my, I know how that happens sometimes. It was available right away at my library, no waiting. Hope you enjoy it!

      Delete
  5. This book sounds fascinating, like you I love the 1950s time period (I loved reading about Southern life, farms, mysteries... I will give it a try (in the near future)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad the author won a prize or I might never have found it.

      Delete
  6. I've always felt a great empathy for Mary Todd Lincoln. Even though I know very little about her, really. I am willing to find out more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is so interesting, since you are not American. You will certainly find out plenty about her in the biography.

      Delete
    2. Well, over here we all know and love Lincoln but know little about his wife. Which biography you suggest?? the one by Jean H Baker???

      Delete
    3. I don't recommend the biography by Baker. I do recommend the 1954 historical fiction Love Is Eternal by Irving Stone, a much more enjoyable book.

      Delete