The Grass Widow

In 1925, in Statler's Cross, Ga., so the story goes, a young woman dressed her toddler in his finest clothes, locked him in his room and hanged herself on a pecan tree in her yard. Ever since, she's haunted the small town. And now her grandson, a local minister, is found with a bullet through his head, and the sheriff has to peel off the layers of Southern gentility to find the reason. It's a solid mystery, but even more satisfying is the author's stellar telling. Holbrook, a former journalist and talented writer, beautifully depicts a small Southern town, its proud inhabitants and its secrets. (Dec.)