05/09/2022
Hartman debuts with a well-crafted and fast-paced family drama set in the Florida panhandle. As a girl raised on the edge of a marsh, Loni Murrow adores her Fish and Game officer father, Boyd. When Loni is 12, Boyd dies in what some insist is a boating accident, though others hint at suicide. Hartman flashes forward to the present day, 25 years later, with Loni working at the Smithsonian as a bird artist. When her brother, Phil, summons her to deal with their mother, Ruth, who has a broken wrist and possible dementia, Loni is plunged back into the small town she had hoped to leave behind. Phil and his hairdresser wife are moving Ruth into assisted living much too expeditiously for Loni’s taste, and selling Ruth’s house. Loni’s attraction to a canoe-rental proprietor, comforting visits with her dad’s avuncular former boss, and illustration work offered by her best friend at a science museum in Tallahassee keep her grounded as she investigates Boyd’s death, prompted by a mysterious letter found at Ruth’s house. The closer she gets to the truth, the more someone tries to scare her away with disturbing anonymous threats. Hartman’s depiction of the natural setting show her to be a talented writer, as do the well-executed takes on museum work, botany, and ornithology. Readers will hope to see Loni back for more. (Sept.)
The book’s lyrical evocations of natural Florida, beautiful but perilous, ring true, as does it depiction of the entanglements of small-town life. Family dynamics are a strong point, and the author builds suspense skillfully as Loni unearths connections between past and present that could be lethal. This debut novel, set in rural Florida, deftly combines family drama and tense thriller.”
—Kirkus
“With its atmospheric swampland setting, Hartman’s debut brings to mind Delia Owens' blockbuster Where the Crawdads Sing (2018), while the mystery itself is on par with Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark (2022) . . . [T]he fast pace and short chapters keep the story moving for an enjoyable ride.”
— Booklist
“Hartman debuts with a well-crafted and fast-paced family drama set in the Florida panhandle . . . [Her] depiction of the natural setting show her to be a talented writer, as do the well-executed takes on museum work, botany, and ornithology. Readers will hope to see Loni back for more.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Hartman’s first novel is interwoven with strong natural history themes, evoking the works of Barbara Kingsolver.”
—Library Journal
“Steeped in the lush rhythms and murky shadows of the Florida Wetlands, Virginia Hartman’s The Marsh Queen is at once a gripping mystery, a devastating family drama, a romance, and a tribute to the natural world. Loni Murrow is a character who will stay with me for a long time. An astonishing debut.”
—Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept
“Part romance, part mystery, The Marsh Queen unwinds its entangled story lines with measured grace. Virginia Hartman shares with her bird artist narrator a keen eye and a precise touch, as well as a wry understanding of the way the natural world comforts and sustains. This is a marvelous debut, witty and wise.”
—Alice McDermott, National Book Award-winning author of The Ninth Hour
“A unique blend of literature and mystery, with deft evocations of Florida’s flora and sometimes malignant fauna, The Marsh Queen finds a compelling Southern-noir niche all its own and marks Virginia Hartman as a writer to watch.”
—Louis Bayard, author of Courting Mr. Lincoln, Lucky Strikes, and The Pale Blue Eye
“The setting is distinctive, Loni is like a girl-detective grown up, and it crackles with trouble and action.”
—Ellen Prentiss Campbell, author of Frieda’s Song
“Subtle and complex, The Marsh Queen navigates the currents and backwaters of family relationships, the Florida swamplands, and a mysterious death that occurred twenty-five years before. Like Barbara Kingsolver, Hartman delves deep into the natural world to explore her characters, and in this case, the connections between one haunted woman and the waters that took her father's life. Fans of Delia Owens and Lauren Groff will find this a wonderful and absorbing read.”
—Suzanne Feldman, author of Sisters of the Great War
“Loni Murrow, the protagonist in Virginia Hartman's harrowing urban-rural novel, knows that it's not that you can’t go home again, but what wretched truths might await you there. In The Marsh Queen there are stories within stories, there are stunning family secrets, there's an almost gothic séance atmosphere—all of that is beautifully orchestrated. But at heart this novel is a kind of mythic journey; let's call it The Daughter's Search for Truth, Love and Redemption.”
—Howard Norman, author of Next Life Might Be Kinder
04/01/2022
DEBUT Hartman's first novel is interwoven with strong natural history themes, evoking the works of Barbara Kingsolver. Raised in the swamps of northern Florida, Loni Mae is now a bird artist with a plum job at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. When her mother starts showing signs of dementia, she returns to her hometown to help her brother sort through their mother's belongings, all the while stumbling over clues that seem to indicate their father's decades-ago death wasn't a suicide. On a quickly diminishing family leave, Loni Mae is unable to chart a path forward. She goes about her disorganized days juggling family expectations, questioning townsfolk about her father's death, sketching birds, and skittishly avoiding romance with a local man. The nonlinear story line is interspersed with long passages on drawing birds, the Floridian swamp, and gardening lore. Four-fifths of the way through the book, the action suddenly picks up when Loni Mae uncovers town secrets that threaten her understanding of the past. Her subsequent undertakings occur at an incongruously breakneck pace before the story wraps up a little too neatly with a family gathering at the nursing home. VERDICT Recommended for those who prefer happy endings.—Erin O. Romanyshyn
2022-07-08
A dutiful family visit propels a young woman into the dark mysteries of her past.
Loni Murrow loves her job as an ornithological illustrator for the Smithsonian, where she has dreamed of working since girlhood. Raised in the tiny Florida Panhandle town of Tenetkee, she high-tailed out of there as soon as she was old enough. She and her mother, Ruth, never got along, especially after Loni’s father, Boyd, died when she was 12. His death was ruled an accidental drowning, but the Florida Fish & Game agent and inveterate angler knew the waters better than anyone, and rumors swirl. Loni reluctantly takes a leave from work and heads south after her mother breaks her wrist in a fall. When she gets to Tenetkee, she discovers her earnest younger brother, Phil, and his bossy wife, Tammy, have already stuck Mom in assisted living and found tenants for her house. Oh, and Ruth is well along into dementia, her house is a wreck, her memory’s intermittent, and her attitude toward her daughter is as mean as ever. Loni hopes to get her settled and return to Washington quickly, but a mysterious note she finds in Ruth’s suitcase sends her looking for the truth about Boyd. She looks for answers from his former boss, the kindly Capt. Chappelle, and other friends and neighbors. But someone who doesn’t appreciate her investigation vandalizes her car. As Tenetkee grows to seem more ominous than laid back, Loni finds solace in canoeing its waterways—and in a growing friendship with Adlai Brinkert, the handsome fellow who owns the canoe rental shop. The book’s lyrical evocations of natural Florida, beautiful but perilous, ring true, as does its depiction of the entanglements of small-town life. Family dynamics are a strong point, and the author builds suspense skillfully as Loni unearths connections between past and present that could be lethal.
This debut novel, set in rural Florida, deftly combines family drama and tense thriller.
This audiobook is bound to appeal to fans of mysteries and family dramas alike. Loni Murrow returns home to Florida to help with her aging mother. Inevitably, events transpire that force Loni to contend with unsettled aspects of her childhood, and this is where the mystery begins. Cassandra Campbell, always a strong narrator, does a fine job with this somewhat loosely told story, liberally sprinkled with details both interesting and extraneous. Campbell's dialogue is easy to follow, and her pace is appropriate, even when the plot shifts from the present to the past. Occasionally, her depictions of emotions don't exactly match the text, but those moments don't significantly affect the result. The audiobook is easy to listen to, and the story keeps the listener interested. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
This audiobook is bound to appeal to fans of mysteries and family dramas alike. Loni Murrow returns home to Florida to help with her aging mother. Inevitably, events transpire that force Loni to contend with unsettled aspects of her childhood, and this is where the mystery begins. Cassandra Campbell, always a strong narrator, does a fine job with this somewhat loosely told story, liberally sprinkled with details both interesting and extraneous. Campbell's dialogue is easy to follow, and her pace is appropriate, even when the plot shifts from the present to the past. Occasionally, her depictions of emotions don't exactly match the text, but those moments don't significantly affect the result. The audiobook is easy to listen to, and the story keeps the listener interested. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine