Loni Mae Murrow, 36, has worked for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History as a bird artist for nine years.

Her world is shaken when she gets a call from her 12-years-younger brother Phil in Tenetkee, Florida - her former hometown. Phil tells Loni that their mom Ruth has taken a fall, and has also been having memory issues. Phil and his wife Tammy have relocated Ruth to St. Agnes Home for physical and occupational therapy, and possibly a permanent move. Phil and Tammy need Loni’s help to go through Ruth’s things so they can rent out the house to help pay for her treatment.

Loni is able to get family leave that allows her to take off for up to eight weeks. The leave is granted without pay, but Loni is able to get piece work as a liaison at the nearby the Tallahassee Science Museum while she is in Florida. As it happens, Loni’s BFF from childhood, Estelle, is a curator there, and can indeed send some work Loni’s way.

While Loni is going through Ruth’s things, she finds a note from a woman named “Henrietta” who wrote: “Dear Ruth, There are some things I have to tell you about Boyd’s death.”

Boyd is Loni’s father who died at the age of 37 in an improbable accident out on the swamp in his boat. He worked at Fish & Game, and knew the swamp like the back of his hand. Loni has always believed the rumor that her dad committed suicide, because he wouldn’t have had an “accident” - and she wants to protect Phil from finding out.

Phil hardly knew his dad, and Loni never would broach the subject. For her, “talking about my dad is like touching an abscess. Fresh pain, long after the wound should have scabbed and mended.” But now they must, since Phil is trying to get the state to put up some money for Ruth’s care based on Boyd’s death while on the job. Loni knows that if Boyd committed suicide, there would be no compensation money.

Loni starts asking questions around town, and before long she is getting anonymous death threats.

Loni also begins taking a canoe out frequently to help her sketch some of the birds Estelle has requested pictures of. She fights an attraction to Adlai Brinkert, who runs the rental place, but doesn’t know whom she can trust.

Frank Chappelle, her dad’s former boss, finally tells Loni that her dad was involved in doing drug deals. Loni doesn’t think that can be right, and in any event, with the danger to her in the town, there is clearly still something that someone doesn’t want Loni to know.

Evaluation: The pace of this story is quite slow. While it may seem as if Boyd’s fate and the threats to Loni should take center stage, there is really much more time devoted to the flora and fauna of the swamp, the changing colors, and beauty of, the birds there, and the frustrations of trying to capture their essence by drawings on a page.

Lonnie likes her orderly life working at the Smithsonian Natural History museum in DC. So when her brother calls her home to North Florida to help with their mother, she feels nothing but dread. Once back in her hometown, old questions resurface about her father's death. Maybe it wasn't an accident or suicide. As she starts asking questions, she finds people are frightened to tell her anything and what she does learn does not coincide with what she was told about his death. Lonnie struggles to trust those she should and trust those she shouldn't. Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. Definitely perfect those those yearning for a book like Where the Crawdad's Sing.

A young woman takes a leave of absence for her job at the Smithsonian to return to her Florida home to care for her mother with beginning dementia. While there, she discovers secrets involving her father's death and an understanding why her mother has been so distant to her since, then . A beautifully written story about families and what connects them. A must read for readers of women's fiction.

Lori Mae Morrow leaves her job at the Smithsonian to return to her home in northern Florida when her younger brother pleads with her to come back to help with their rapidly declining mother. With her mother in a nursing home, Lori is left to sort through the detritus of her mother’s life. She finds the normal, small reminders of a life lived, along with a note from a woman Lori does not know. The note refers to Lori’s father, Boyd’s death. Long presumed a suicide by drowning in the marsh when Lori was a child, the note offers hints that his death may have been something more sinister. Lori sets out to uncover the truth about her father, trying to get information from her mother, who may or may not remember what really happened to her father. This is a beautifully written story about family, memory and loss