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'The Girl Who Stopped Swimming' is the latest from 'gods in Alabama' author
 | | "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming" By Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central Publishing, $23.99) |
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Joshilyn Jackson's new book, "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming," is much like her previous works, "gods in Alabama" and "Between, Georgia," in which she captures Southern life perfectly. Jackson's latest tale is part thriller, part supernatural exploration, part family drama and part journey of self-discovery.
Florida housewife and mother Laurel Hawthorne is happy in her suburban life with her techno-geek husband, David, and their preteen daughter, Shelby. Laurel's days are spent arranging carpools and creating homemade quilts. But in the blink of an eye, all of that changes.
Laurel is visited one night by the ghost of a little girl who leads her to the backyard swimming pool, where the dead body of one of Shelby's friends, Molly, is found floating lifelessly. Laurel and her family's life is turned upside-down. Thrust into long-forgotten, haunting childhood memories, she cannot accept that Molly's death was an accident. The whole neighborhood wants her to put the matter to rest, but Laurel can't shake her nagging doubts.
Against David's wishes, she recruits her spitfire sister, Thalia, to help her figure out why there was a girl's body in her pool and why her own daughter is lying about what she knows about what happened that night. Sober and staid Laurel needs Thalia's gumption and fearlessness to help her solve this mystery.
Jackson's seemingly effortless prose flows onto the page, with each new revelation more shocking than the last, yet fitting perfectly into puzzle of the story. Jackson writes with knowledge and authority about the lives and lies that lurk beneath the cookie-cutter existence of people who share the same street, but don't really know each other.
Books reviewed in this column are available online or at your local bookstore.
(c) 2008 King Features Synd., Inc.
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