The Year of the Storm

Danny, the 29-year-old main narrator of Mantooth’s gripping first novel with supernatural overtones, has a painful story to tell his therapist. When he was 14, his mother and little sister, Anna, disappeared from their rural Alabama home during a violent storm. After nine months of exhaustive searching, there was still no trace of the two. All signs pointed to his mother, who is disturbed and unhappy, voluntarily leaving home with Anna. But was there a connection with the chilling case of two local girls missing since the early 1960s? Enter second narrator Walter Pike, a reclusive and erratic Vietnam vet, who was also 14 at the time Danny’s mother and sister vanished. Walter told Danny some unsettling stories, which Danny ultimately put to the test. Did Danny find a parallel universe? Were Danny and Walter both delusional? This eerie novel can be as mesmerizing as a campfire tale, despite some awkward transitions between past and present. Agent: Beth Fleisher, Clear Sailing Creatives. (June)