THE DRINKING GOURD

After serving ten years in prison for dealing cocaine, a crime she swears she didn’t commit, Casey Cavendish returns to the small college town of Oberlin, Ohio determined to clear her name, finish her interrupted college degree, and build a new life. Her arrival coincides with an upsurge in drugs on campus. When her erstwhile best friend Jules, who married Casey’s old love while she was in prison, is found dead from an overdose of cocaine and alcohol in the cellar of the Drinking Gourd, an antebellum inn on the outskirts of town, Casey graduates from pariah to the prime suspect for murder. She must discover who betrayed her before she’s railroaded a second time, this time for life.

Much of the action takes place in the Drinking Gourd, an inn named after a song that helped guide fugitive slaves on their journey north to freedom during Abolition. The Gourd, once a safe house on the Underground Railroad, now serves as a restaurant and local watering hole, and is far from safe.

. . .

“A confident and compelling debut by an author to watch! Timely and thought-provoking, The Drinking Gourd combines a solid mystery with a riveting and brave look at the tensions of history, and the way the past haunts us--until we face it.  Main character Casey Cavendish is tough and wonderful—and we root for her all the way. Do not miss this!” 

~ Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

"The Drinking Gourd resonates with vivid characters ensnared in a web of love, betrayal, and greed that roils just below the surface of a sleepy college town. Wrongly sent to prison for dealing cocaine, Casey, the hero-rebel-victim, fights to clear her name before she’s framed a second time, this time for murder. Fast, a fresh new voice in the crime fiction world, offers a twist on the damaged heroine and a powerful sense of place with echoes from the Underground Railroad.” 

~ Kate Flora, award-winning author of the Joe Burgess Series

“Two compelling characters, one an ex-con, the other a cop, take you on a wild ride as they untangle the mysteries that haunt the past, shatter the present, and threaten the future. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.” 

~ Barbara Ross, author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries

and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries