It’s 1972 and
fourteen-year-old New Yorker Elizabeth Landers is sent to the sleepy town of
Ahoskie, North Carolina to spend the summer with relatives. Her expectation of
boredom is quickly dispelled when police sirens and flashing lights draw her to
a horrible scene at the Danbury Bridge. Mr. Samuel, owner of Samuel’s Lumber
Yard, has driven his car off the bridge and into the river, drowning himself
and his daughter. The medical examiner thinks it’s an accident, but the Sheriff
finds fresh bullet holes on the bridge right where the skid marks are.
Curiously, Mr. Samuel died clutching a unique 1909 wheat penny—a penny that is
then stolen from the Sheriff’s office. Lizbeth witnesses Miss Violet’s grief
upon learning that her husband and child are dead, and decides she will help by
finding the penny.
Her search involves
Lizbeth in the lives of many Ahoskie residents. Like the owner of the grocery
store, mean old Mr. Jake, who—as all the kids in Ahoskie know—hates black
folks. Plenty of pennies in his till. Then there is Ms. Melanie Neely,
otherwise known as “Ms. McMeanie,” who thinks the lumber yard should belong to
her. And Mr. Samuel’s handsome brother Ben, who struggles to keep the business
afloat after his more clever brother’s death. Lizbeth searches through the
collection plates at church and in the coin jars of crazy old Aunt Ode, a
strange old woman missing one eye and most of her teeth, who keeps a flask in
her apron pocket and a secret in her soul.
About
the Author:
Treva Hall Melvin, has been a practicing attorney in all
levels of government as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. A native
New Yorker, she graduated from Villanova Law School in Pennsylvania and now
lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband, their two children, and their dog
Audrey. She loves athletics and antiquing.
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