‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is all at once a beautifully written Coming of Age Story intertwined with a Murder Mystery set in the lush environment of the North Carolina marshland which is so vividly detailed you can almost smell the brine water. Kya Clark is abandoned in the marsh at a young age and left to survive by living off what she knows from her early years (fishing, a bit of cooking, basic survival skills.) Kya has little interaction with others except for the man who sells her gas for her boat in exchange for fish. And Tate, a boy around her age who feels bad for “The Marsh Girl” as she has become known and teaches her how to read. 

Intertwined with Kya’s story is a thriller of a mystery surrounding the murder of the town’s former quarterback, golden boy Chase Andrews, who was found dead in…you guessed it…the marsh! The plot’s twists and turns are as entangled as prey in a spider’s web with an ending that had me reading the last pages again and again just to make sure I had it right. 

Definitely the best book I have read this year!

 ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ was written by Georgia Native Delia Owens. She graduated from the University of Georgia. (Go Dawgs!) It is a NY Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller and Amazon Bestseller where it has over 21,000 reviews.