My Soul to Keep

Start with a leisurely summer in a mountain valley in eastern Tennessee, where gnarled apple trees in the misty morning evoke thoughts of gnomes in sinister fairy tales, and where spirited horses beckon for long trail rides. Throw in a bunch of friendly country dwellers who host enthusiastic barn dances and hint darkly about stills hidden in the woods. Then imagine all of this as experienced through the eyes of a nervous New York City photographer, a divorced woman with her small boy. Sex with a handsome cousin and ample photographic opportunities seem to promise a restful summer for this woman, but when her son starts to hang out with an "imaginary" playmate, things go sour quickly. It's another ghost story from Judith Hawkes--not as brilliantly nuanced and tightly wound as Julian's House, yet just as richly descriptive, and satisfying in a lazy sort of way.