Real Bad Things

From the author of Cottonmouths, a Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017, comes an evocative suspense about the cost of keeping secrets and the dangers of coming home. Beneath the roiling waters of the Arkansas River lie dead men and buried secrets. When Jane Mooneys violent stepfather, Warren, disappeared, most folks in Maud Bottoms, Arkansas, assumed he got drunk and drowned. After all, the river had claimed its share over the years. When Jane confessed to his murder, she should have gone to jail. Thats what she wanted. But without a body, the police didnt charge her with the crime. So Jane left for Bostonand took her secrets with her. Twenty-five years later, the river floods and a body surfaces. Talk of Warrens murder grips the town. Now in her forties, Jane returns to Maud Bottoms to reckon with her past: to do jail time, to face her revenge-bent mother, to make things right. But though Janes homecoming may enlighten some, it could threaten others. Because in this desolate river valley, some secrets are better left undisturbed.