Trying to be unbiased about a story and setting one loves so fully is less than easy. Set in South Carolina and parts of western North Carolina, Rash’s novel is simple structurally: there’s been a murder; there’s been an affair. It’s in a sense a “whodunit?” Where’s the body? Is it buried? If so, how was it accomplished and by whom? Can the sheriff prove it?

There’s no lack of lying and Southern protectiveness about one’s past, one’s property, or one’s privacy.

As to describing the crushing infiltration of the massive monstrous electric company clearing the region of its history and identity (not to mention its trees, creeks, streams, wildlife, and simple farms), Rash excels. Perfect.

Rash’s greatest strength is his ear for spoken upstate SC and WNC language. He’s a fine ear. The dialogue of his characters, especially the interior monologues of his characters, demonstrates that.

Rash also is dialed when it comes to the complexity of family tragedy. This book is not written at the level of one of Faulkner’s masterpieces about Thomas Sutpen, that’s certain, but Rash is adept at dramatizing how our families are all fractured. Each family has at least one beloved who is estranged, arguably with good reasons.

Again, I concede my prejudice in favor Rash’s setting in this book. His characters, too, I respected. Why? Well, they were real. Warts and all.