Murder haunts N.C. author's mystery 'In a Lonely Backwater,' which invokes UNCW

Noir comes South in "In a Lonely Backwater," the latest thriller from Reidsville, N.C., writer Valerie Nieman.

Since the narrator-protagonist is 17 years old, the author and publisher are treating this as a "young adult" novel, although its market range is much wider. Anyone who likes Harlan Coben or Gillian Flynn should feel right at home.

An artificial resort lake somewhere in the middle of North Carolina is the home of Maggie, a high school outsider who lives on a houseboat at the marina, where her alcoholic dad is the manager. Her mom ran off to Florida years ago.

A jock who's self-conscious about her looks (she throws javelin), Maggie can't wait to get away to the University of North Carolina Wilmington to study marine biology. She wanders the woods observing the wildlife and plants. Her hero is Carl Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish scientist who created modern taxonomy, and her favorite book is Linnaeus' journal of a youthful trip to Lapland.

In other words, she's about the opposite of her cousin Charisse, the pretty one, the popular one, the one whose daddy bought her a Jaguar. It was Charisse who started the rumor in school that Maggie was a lesbian, prompting Maggie to invent "Fletcher," an imaginary boyfriend (she chronicles their erotic adventures on Facebook).

Then, Charisse disappears the night of the senior prom. Her body, in a torn dress, is discovered on a houseboat at the marina, essentially in Maggie's back yard.

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Now, Maggie did not go to the prom. (Fletcher wasn't available.) She spent prom night out with her fellow misfits at the arcade, then out drinking jug wine in the old church cemetery.

But then Charisse drives up, drunk and crying. Maggie leaves her there, which may have been a big mistake. She's now one of the last people to see Charisse alive. And the police are asking where Fletcher is, and what's his real name.

Detective Vann starts dogging Maggie's heels, convinced there's something she's not telling. And someone else starts trailing Maggie, leaving odd little stick houses in the woods near the marina. What's up?

Readers will catch a taste of S.E. Hinton and more than a little J.D. Salinger here. Maggie, it seems, is an Unreliable Narrator.

Nieman is no Gillian Flynn, and "Lonely Backwater" is not exactly taut. The story meanders through the woods, through Lapland and up to West Virginia for a family reunion out of "Hillbilly Elegy."

Still, Nieman, who's the author of "To the Bones" and "Blood Clay," is adept at handling Southern gothic atmospherics, and the text keeps the reader going right up until the solution on virtually the last page.

BOOK REVIEW

'IN THE LONELY BACKWATER'

By Valerie Nieman

Raleigh: Fitzroy Books, $18.95

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: In a Lonely Backwater is the latest from NC writer Valerie Nieman