Virginia Hartman makes her debut with THE MARSH QUEEN, a gracefully written mystery set in the smothering Florida wetlands.

Although she was only 12 years old at the time, Loni Murrow has never forgotten the day her father left their family for good. With a new baby at home, a tired but lovelorn wife, and a daughter who idolized him, Boyd went out fishing in the swamp and drowned. A Fish & Game officer and a skilled boater, Boyd was the most unlikely candidate for death by drowning, and everywhere Loni went she heard the whispers: “Drowned… intentional… weighted down… depressed.” Since then, she and her mother Ruth and brother Phil have obeyed one rule: never speak about Daddy. Erase the knowledge that he left and never came back.

"Wry, contemplative and mythical in tone, Hartman’s debut is a perfect literary mystery with an emotionally resonant story of redemption at its heart."

Now an adult, Loni is an accomplished bird artist at the Smithsonian Institute. Drawing on the wildlife she first fell in love with on trips through the swamp with her father, she enjoys her job and getting the details of elusive, colorful birds just right. But her neat, predictable life has become a bit harder lately: the Smithsonian is facing layoffs and intrusive visits from business majors with eyes toward cutbacks, and Ruth has started to get on in age. On the day we meet Loni, Phil calls to tell her that their mother has had a bad fall and she must come home --- not for a few days, but for a few weeks, to help him and his wife get Ruth into an assisted living facility and wrap up her affairs. Loni has avoided Tenetkee, the small, rumor-filled town of her childhood --- and her critical mother --- for years, but the time for a reckoning has come.

When Loni arrives in Tenetkee after taking a family medical leave, despite harsh warnings from her supervisor, she is taken aback by the changes there. The women still wear the same hairstyles, and the sons of the men who policed and controlled the town have inherited their jobs. But new tenements have gone up, small businesses have changed hands, and, most surprising of all, her mother’s home has fallen into disarray. Always a commanding presence, she has begun to slip, and Loni believes that one of her triggers was a cryptic note found among her belongings: “There are some things I have to tell you about Boyd’s death…. Rumors flew around…. I couldn’t tell you then.”

All at once, the whispers of Loni’s childhood come rushing back. But with Ruth's memory failing, the town unfriendly to the prodigal daughter who has returned to grace them with her presence, and her brother only an infant at the time of their father’s death, Loni has no one to turn to for answers.

When Phil reveals that their mother’s savings are not enough to cover her full-time care, he suggests petitioning the state for the money it owes their family because their father died while on duty. Although his death was ruled an accident, Loni knows that probing into the conditions of his passing could open a whole new can of worms. She recalls that her father’s boss, Captain Chappelle, covered up the fact that his pockets were weighted and that he’d been acting strange so that the family would not lose his life insurance payout. But what really happened?

As a patrolling member of Fish & Game, Boyd had his own enemies, but he also had issues with his destructive father, who visited him shortly before his death. Was he cornered by a man with a grudge, pushed to the edge by his father’s words, or, worst of all, the victim of a freak accident? Torn between her desire to leave Tenetkee and her trauma behind once and for all and her itch for vengeance, Loni must wade into the murkiest waters of all: not the swamplands of Florida, but the pits of memory and rumor mills that plague Tenetkee and have concealed the truth of her father’s death for too long.

A slow-burn mystery with a creeping sense of dread and the air of a gritty Southern noir, THE MARSH QUEEN is a powerful, evocative debut. Hartman is a skilled writer who balances stunning family secrets and a deftly written mystery as assuredly and confidently as the most experienced writers. At the same time, her love of the marshlands and swamps of her setting is palpable and visceral; the beauty of their flora and fauna is as alluring as the dangers they present.

As Loni navigates the dark waterways and investigates the seedy characters associated with her father’s death, the setting and the narrative arc play off one another as beautifully as an orchestra. Hartman weaves together mysteries big and small, but her short chapters and relatable protagonist keep even the most unwieldy connections accessible. This is a truly convincing novel, one that lures you in with a mystery, fills you with dread, and still has you wishing you were reading it on a canoe in the middle of a swamp.

Perfect for readers of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE and FLORIDA, THE MARSH QUEEN announces the arrival of a distinct new talent. Wry, contemplative and mythical in tone, Hartman’s debut is a perfect literary mystery with an emotionally resonant story of redemption at its heart.