Mississippi Flyway

Set in 1967 along the banks of the Mississippi River and bird flyway, thirty-one year-old Ellie Moon, recently divorced, hounded by a controlling mother, and haunted by her dead sister Rose, goes on a road trip with her estranged father, Tiny, famous gambler and conman. Ellie flies along her own inner flyway as they travel south to her sister’s grave in Mississippi, to a near drowning in the Mississippi River, to a Voodoo ceremony on a deserted bayou near New Orleans. Tiny gambles his way down the river route, meeting his colorful cronies along the way, staying one step ahead of Dover, a Kentucky sheriff seeking revenge on Tiny for stealing his truck after a heated game of poker on Kentucky Lake. Ellie retrieves dark memories of her childhood that have haunted her adult life.

She learns that in order to forgive, she must first remember.

The author's style, rich with unforced detail, expertly conjures very different places—the sour air in a den where men have been gambling for days, the muddy, punishing waters of the Mississippi, the cool veranda of an antebellum building—and she crafts characters with the same meticulous attention. Land's narrative has a captivating momentum, and she offers countless subtle, appealing touches—Tiny's addiction to expensive cigars, Dover's fetish for footwear. An absorbing, well-written novel about coming to terms with personal demons.

-Kirkus Discoveries