July 11,
2019
The Gone
Dead by Chanelle Benz
Billie
James is a biracial woman, about 35 years old, who inherited a house in the
town of Greendale on the Mississippi Delta.
Her mother, Pia, was a medieval scholar, recently deceased. She returns to the house with her dog (Rufus,
who used to belong to her recently deceased grandmother) because she wants to
find out what happened to her father, Clifton James, a well-known local poet
who fell and hit his head and died.
Billie was missing for several hours on the day her father died. Billie and her mother have been estranged for
several years from her father’s family, because inter-racial marriage was a
felony in Mississippi. After hearing
snippets of information, Billie decides to investigate the events surrounding
what happened the day her father died, but her family and the locals don’t want
her digging around.
This was
a little heavy for reading during the summer, but you take your new library
books when your hold comes in. Very slow
moving, like the Mississippi Delta where it is set; the overall themes are the
importance of family, place, and the truth.
Many of the characters are well-drawn, even Rufus the dog. The ending was flat: one of the things I didn't care for was getting to the end and having one of the characters (Billie's uncle) say, "Okay, this is what happened," after letting the other people in the town lie to her, terrorize her, beat her up, and shoot her dog (the dog is okay at the end). It turns out Clifton dies as a result of being beat up; he refused to get medical help at the time of the beating and later when De tries to get him to go to the hospital; and when he is found later that night collapsed in his yard, the sheriff doesn't take him to the hospital.
Even though it's described as a mystery, I wouldn't give it that label. I only finished it because I did want to find out what had happened to the father. I did not really enjoy this one and don't recommend it.
