From the New York Timesbestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, a haunting story set deep in moonshine country, where love, loss, redemption and atonement intersect in the dark secrets surrounding a 1952 prom night when two teens go missing in rural Kentucky.
"An emotionally resonant tale of secrets, regret, and absolution that held me spellbound. You simply have to read it." —Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants
A SIBA Okra Pick | A Southern Book Prize Finalist
Glass Ferry, Kentucky, is bourbon country. Whiskey has been a way of life for generations, enabling families to provide and survive even in the darkest times. Flannery Butler's daddy, Beauregard "Honey Bee" Butler, was known for making some of the best whiskey in the state. And Flannery is the only person Honey Bee ever entrusted with his recipes before he passed on, swearing her to secrecy as he did so.
But Flannery is harboring other secrets too, about her twin sister Patsy, older by eight minutes and pretty in a way Flannery knows she'll never be. Then comes the prom night when Patsy—wearing a yellow chiffon dress and the family pearls—disappears along with her date. Every succeeding year on the twins' birthday, Flannery's mother bakes a strawberry cake, convinced that this is the day Patsy will finally come home. But it will be two tumultuous decades until the muddy river yields a clue about what happened that night, compelling Flannery to confront the truth about her sleepy town, her family's past, and the choices she and those closest to her have made in the name of love and retribution...