It is 1918 and the world is at war. But this feels a million miles away for Laurel Shelton. In the house where her parents toiled and died, in the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains, Laurel aches for her life to begin.

Set deep in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. This title transports the reader to another place, and illuminates the world around us in unexpected ways.

Nothing else comes so I set the notebook beside me. What else is here? I ask myself and listen. This section of stream purls and riffles amid small stones. What word might be made for what I hear ...Les Clary's final case has broken the still surface of his backwater town. Becky, a park ranger with her own mysterious past, shares Les's consolation in the natural world that lies just beyond their hopelessly broken town. As Les and Becky explore of the county's lyrically beautiful landscape, they finds themselves led deeper into the heart of the town's corruption, and into the darkness of their...

Summer in Madison County. Seventeen-year-old Travis Shelton cannot see a way out of his small town - until he discovers a grove of marijuana in the woods that could make him some serious money. But Travis has stumbled across more than drugs. His discovery is the first unwitting step in a journey back to the savage violence and betrayal festering in the community's past, and to the corruption in its present. Vivid and unsettling, The World Made Straight is a powerful exploration of the secrets that bind us together and drive us apart.