The Gulf — Rachel Cochran

A gripping debut literary thriller set on the gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s, at the height of the women's liberation movement, as a closeted young woman attempts to solve her surrogate mother's murder in a tight-knit, religious small town.

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by the effects of a devastating recent hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is doing her best to renovate a decaying local mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother's death in Vietnam, Lou imagines for herself a peaceful future in Parson, but those hopes are dashed when Miss Kate is found murdered, and no one but Lou seems curious to find the culprit.  

Things become increasingly complicated when Joanna, Miss Kate's long-estranged daughter and Lou's first love, arrives in Parson -- not to question her mother's death but to continue the work on the mansion. But Joanne's arrival unearths sinister secrets about the history of the town and those who inhabit it and may be the key to help Lou discover the answer to Miss Kate's untimely death.

A gorgeously gripping story of forbidden love, devastating secrets, and a surprising twist on the traditional small town story, The Gulf is not only a riveting mystery, but it holds up a mirror to the values -- and failures -- of America.