cover image With a Name Like Love

With a Name Like Love

Tess Hilmo. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-374-38465-4

Olivene "Ollie" Love is tired of life on the road with her mother and four younger sisters, as they follow her father, a traveling preacher, from one dirt-poor town to another in the southern U.S. in 1957. She'd like to attend school, and, perhaps, make a friend. When the Loves set up their tent in Binder, Ark., 13-year-old Ollie finds another reason to stay put: Jimmy Koppel, a local boy whose mother, Virginia, has been jailed after confessing to the murder of Jimmy's no-account father, a mean drunk. Ollie's gut instinct is that Virginia is innocent, but Jimmy can't help to exonerate her. "You got a phone book?" he asks. "That'd be your list of suspects." As a detective, Ollie fumbles repeatedly, but her persistent attempts to find out what happened to Henry Koppel keep the plot clipping along. Debut novelist Hilmo creates a few truly despicable villains to balance out the goodness of the Love family. Fans of Ruth White's books will find a similarly affectionate portrait of a close-knit family of modest means, struggling to do good in the world and right by each other. Ages 10%E2%80%9314. (Sept.)