cover image Somebody Pick Up My Pieces

Somebody Pick Up My Pieces

J.D. Mason, St. Martin's, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-36887-6

The fierce fourth appearance of the Rodgers women (after You Gotta Sin to Get Saved) finds matriarch Charlotte Rogers confronted with her worst nightmare: the reappearance of Uncle Lamont Williams. Twenty-seven years earlier, Uncle killed Charlotte's lover and savagely beat her. Now he's out of prison and eager to reconnect. Turns out, years ago, Uncle used young Charlotte to pay off a debt, and now Charlotte is a bitter woman whose youngest daughter, Cammy, recently lost a child in a car accident. Unable to cope, Cammy leaves her husband and moves to Denver to be closer to her older sisters, Connie and Clarice, who are having romantic problems. Mason vividly explores the roller-coaster relationships the chronically unhappy Charlotte has with her daughters and captures Charlotte's desperation as she contends with Uncle, leading to a bone-chilling if paradoxically uplifting ending. (Feb.)