Sorrow Wood
Subtle humor and mostly pitch-perfect prose distinguish Atkins's compelling mix of mystery and romance, set in 1985 with flashbacks to the 1930s and '40s. When Wendell Blackmon, the 59-year-old police chief of Sand Valley, Ala., investigates the murder of a self-proclaimed witch whose charred body was found at a farm called Sorrow Wood, he discovers that the victim was loathed by many in her occult-as-an-excuse-for-free-love coven. Meanwhile, decades earlier, after a painful childhood, Wendell meets his future wife, Reva, falls in love and marries her in the course of a week. Together they build a family. Reva, who serves as Sand Valley's probate judge and believes in reincarnation, believes she and Wendell have shared several lifetimes, indicated in historical vignettes throughout. Atkins (The Front Porch Prophet) smoothly weaves past into present as the action builds to a final poignant twist.(Aug.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.