Laurel Hawthorne is a wife, mother, quilt maker, and possibly a person who is visited by ghosts. She lives in a gated neighborhood in Pensacola, Florida and has spent her whole life trying to protect herself and her family from the ugly realities of the world. Specifically, she has tried to shelter herself from her mother's hometown of DeLop, Alabama, an old mining town that is the picture of poverty and crime. The book opens with Laurel being visited by the ghost of Molly, one of her daughter's friends. Molly leads her to the body floating in Laurel's swimming pool--Molly's own. Laurel becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Molly and why her own daughter won't talk about it. She invites her crazy sister Thalia into the mix, which provides some comedy in an otherwise tragic situation.
Joshilyn Jackson does an excellent job of keeping the story moving and keeping the reader interested. I didn't feel that it hit a stall the way some books do. She wrote the characters very well. In fact, I think she may have written a character as being on the Autism Spectrum, but without stating it directly. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is a mystery and a family drama. If you're in the mood for one or both of those....read this book. (Powell's has it in paperback for $6.95 right now.)
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