A return to the Southern Gothic tradition and a testimony to her Southern roots, author Rose Mary Stiffin's debut novel, Walk in Bethel, is an earthy, spellbinding drama set in the sweltering Mississippi Delta. With skeletons in the closet and a myriad of back porch speculations, Stiffin writes in the vernacular of a multi-family epic that describes the darkest passages of the human heart, as well as its well-lit corridors of freedom, forgiveness, and love of family. Nashville is Reverend Carl Thompson's wife; she secretly considers prayers to be no more than wishes yet believes God walks the...