The Rambling Writer Book Review: Summer of the Redeemers by Carolyn Haines

Summoning the rich textures of Southern rural life threatened by shadowy violence and religious extremism, this coming-of-age story grabs the reader and doesn’t let go.

Set in small-town and rural Mississippi of 1963, Summer of the Redeemers follows 13-year-old Bekkah as she grapples with the growing pains of leaving her idyllic childhood behind. Adulthood, with the ugliness of racial violence and the arrival of a cult of religious extremists possibly kidnapping and selling babies, not to mention friends suddenly obsessing about makeup and dating boys, doesn’t seem all that attractive to tomboy Bekkah. She’d rather keep playing, biking, and swimming in the creek with her best friend Alice. But change has come, and her curiosity about the secretive cult drives her into danger. The excitement of another new arrival Nadine with a truckload of show horses, who has offered Bekkah long-desired riding lessons, also begins to unravel. With her mostly-absent father and distracted writer mother, Bekkah has only grandmother “Mama Betts” to turn to with worries and questions, but soon learns that she’s on her own to unravel the town’s and her own guilty secrets.

I’ve enjoyed Carolyn Haines’s lighter mysteries before in the “Bones” series, but this novel took me much deeper into immersion into a vanishing way of life in this rural setting. I could smell the over-sweet kudzu as Bekkah and Alice ride their bikes, feel the mud and clay oozing through barefoot toes as they walk to the creek, ride the rush of swimming down the rocky shoot of a cold creek, cling to the back of a spooked horse as Bekkah challenges the Redeemer boys trying to hurt her dog Pickett.

All of the characters are unique individuals who rise above stereotypes, including one of the Redeemer boys, Greg, who is caught between a desire to escape the bullying cult leader, who has savagely beaten him, and fear that he can never find a place outside the group. The mysteries of who and what the Redeemers are only deepen as Bekkah become obsessed with exposing their supposed crimes. Nadine, the owner of the horses who is training but also confusing Bekkah with erratic behavior, is another fascinating character who contributes to a growing darkness of confusion that threatens to unbalance Bekkah. Even the minor characters, like the somewhat older boy Frank, reveal unexpected layers as they interact with Bekkah. Will she emerge a bit older and wiser by summer’s end? Even through her disturbing passages, when I was silently telling her, “Don’t do it,” I was rooting for this plucky young gal.

*****

Yet another reason to purchase the ebook and read the exciting story: All proceeds from this edition will go to support Good Fortune Farm Refuge, an animal rescue venue founded by Carolyn Haines.

*****

You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com