The Sins of Summer Daughters: A Novel

"Four generations of women struggle with life in a small Southern town where the heat and lack of options are oppressive and snakes hide in the tall grass. Patrick's writing sparks with stunning observations and a flammable wit." — Joshua Moehling, USA Today bestselling author of And There He Kept Her and A Long Time Gone

For fans of Dirt Creek and William Kent Kreuger comes a profound southern mystery from acclaimed author Lo Patrick. When her granddaughter is accused of murder, a woman must confront the buried secrets of a summer long past—because she can try to forget, but the Georgia land remembers.

Meg Gregory never wanted to return to Tuskin, the small Georgia town she grew up in, as barren as the fields that surround it. But after her divorce left her wounded, she knew she had to quit running. Now, years later, as Meg watches her daughter and granddaughter navigate familiar dirt roads, Meg is bent on hiding from the memories that haunt her. Because she skipped town for a reason, and that reason runs deep.

But when Meg's unassuming granddaughter Lucy is suddenly charged with the murder of her boyfriend, everything changes. Meg knows Lucy couldn't have done it. Killing a boy will break a girl like that. She should know. She's seen it happen before.

As Meg fights for Lucy's innocence, memories from the past threaten to break free, and she's left to contemplate a different murder, a different dead boy, a different summer under the hot Georgia sun. And soon enough Meg isn't quite sure what is memory and who, in all of this, is innocent.

A moving rumination on memory, legacy, trauma, and small-town tension, The Sins of Summer Daughters is a masterclass in mystery paired seamlessly with an intimate character study you won't soon forget.