Kim Michele Richardson

In 1972 on Mudas Summers's 17th birthday, her beloved mama Ella is found hanging from the rafters of their home....

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything - everything except books, that is. Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. She's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else....

Glass Ferry, Kentucky, is bourbon country. On prom night, Patsy Butler - wearing the family pearls - disappears along with her date. It will be two tumultuous decades until a clue appears....

Nameless, Kentucky, in 1969 is a hardscrabble community where jobs are few and poverty is a simple fact - just like the hot Appalachian breeze or the pests that can wipe out a tobacco field in days....