LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS, by Lori Roy

Literature, Mystery/Thriller -- 4 stars



In 1936 Kentucky, folklore beliefs run deep.  In 1952, not much has changed when, half-way between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran visits her neighbor's well at midnight believing she'll see the man she'll marry reflected there.  She finds her elderly neighbor's body--a woman whose son hanged for raping her real mother, who she knows as Aunt Juna.  Told in alternating time periods, which becomes confusing at times since the characters overlap, this is one of those books that seems to hurtle toward the inevitable while at the same time lingering overlong on the journey.  It is difficult to categorize--literature, but with a mystery at its core. It's a book that seems to exist entirely in shadow.  Even the ending, which is a surprise, is dark...and sad...and somehow apt.