THE GOOD ONES

Maggi-Meg Reed brings Stewart's Southern Gothic to life with style. Nicola, an unreliable narrator with a nondescript accent, returns to her Appalachian hometown, hoping to resolve the 16-year-old mystery of Lauren's disappearance. Even the secondary characters in this novel have realistic Appalachian accents as the story moves between past and present. In the present, Nicola often sounds needy as she struggles to cement her place in the small town's hierarchy. In the flashbacks, snide and belittling Lauren is sometimes in and sometimes out at the town's high school. Her boyfriend/future husband, Warren, has the football hero's confidence. Reed succeeds at setting this universal story of small-town secrets in a specific place and making even minor characters unique. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2023]