Riding a Blue Horse — Carter Elliott

In this powerful and frequently stunning debut novel set in a remote mountain county of West Virginia, just as the criminals, who prove not to be brilliant tacticians, and the police, who are not corrupt clods, defy their stereotypes, so does Molly Small. Over the hill, at fourteen, in the kiddie-porn industry, and dumped by the operators who continue to torment her, Molly refuses to lie down and play victim. Her spirit feisty, her tongue salty, she calls upon all her resources -- cunning, fantasy, fabrication, common sense, humor, sheer will -- not only to survive but to begin life anew. But it ain't no way easy. Molly's unexpected appearance in Shawnee, where she hopes to connect with a man known by locals only as Turk, turns out to be only the first in a series of ominous events to challenge the investigative skills of the quiet, God-fearing state trooper Roscoe Bragg and young postal inspector Rens Vandermeer. A private plane crashes and leaves an illegally adopted six-year-old boy abandoned on a snowy mountainside; the body of a lost little girl is found in a leaf bag; witnesses disappear, and so does Molly.