Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black (review)

Things have not been easy for seventeen-year-old Valentine after her mother was hanged for murder in their nineteenth-century New England town eleven years ago, and they’re about to get worse. The local reverend approaches Valentine with information that her mother might have been innocent, a possibility that sets off a troubling set of events. First, her father goes missing after she confronts him about her mother’s conviction. Then she finds the reverend dying in his house, with his last utterance indicating he’s been poisoned, and her friend the local outcast is accused. Complicating matters further are the romantic attentions of Rowan, the son of the man whom her mother killed, whose wealthy family could possibly be behind both past and present tragedies. This is a clever mix of creepy thriller and slow-burn mystery, set against that classic backdrop of a secluded small town with puritanical values and clear divisions of class and status. Valentine can be sometimes frustrating in her lack of curiosity (especially regarding her father’s disappearance), but her often obvious denial forces readers to question everything she doesn’t as the plot casts red herring after red herring. An added boost of girl power, when Valentine turns her back on romance to follow a career, adds enjoyment to the mystery’s satisfying conclusion.