Part Where the Crawdads Sing and part The God of the Woods, this novel blends a compelling mystery told across multiple points of view and timelines, gorgeous nature writing, and an unforgettable love story for the ages.

DELICATE CREATURES
by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Minotaur Books/St. Martin’s, Summer 2027

Blue Hollow, West Virginia, 2005. Local journalist Britt has a terrible shock when she arrives at the home of her best friend, Des, to find blood all over the kitchen. Des, her son and her husband are all missing. Twenty years earlier, Ozias and his mother, Mari, arrive in the small town, hoping for a fresh start. The trouble is, the very white town of Blue Hollow isn’t welcoming to two multiracial outsiders, except for Des, their young neighbor who lives up the mountain. Over time, Des and Ozias fall in love and dream of a life together, but when Ozias decides to join the army and is later deployed to Kuwait, Des eventually has no choice but to move on. Then, one night in 1992, Ozias returns to Blue Hollow, his homecoming marked by a night of shocking violence.

Years later, when Britt makes her discovery at Des’s house, the sheriff and the town are quick to tie Ozias to the crime scene, given his recent return to Blue Hollow and his history with Des. But Britt isn’t so sure. After all, she has secrets of her own, one of which is a very good reason to suspect Des’s husband, Gary, might be to blame. Britt isn’t the only one hiding something, though, and as the search for answers heats up, a gripping drama unfolds. Blue Hollow is rife with secrets and preconceptions, and there are people in this town who will stop at nothing to keep the truth from coming to light.

Kimi Cunningham Grant is the author of Fallen Mountains, Silver Like Dust, These Silent Woods, and The Nature of Disappearing. Kimi is a two-time winner of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in creative nonfiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in Fathom, Literary Mama, RATTLE, Poet Lore, and Whitefish Review. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.