When human bones are discovered in a Mississippi river bed, Fran Boden—a loner with peculiar gifts—returns to her small town to probe the origins of her mother’s long-ago disappearance and confront the ghosts of her family, both living and dead. Performed by Daryl Lisa Fazio, from her novel.
Fran says goodbye. And finally, gently makes sure her father knows the truth.
Fran puts it all together, Noble and the dogs at her side, through the woods, at the riverside, as we move back and forth in time, and a memory becomes present and very much alive. Until that life can finally let go.
Fran Boden and Sheriff Cass Noble go to a family gathering. And find warmth and comfort, a little truth and confrontation, and a woman who might not be a woman at all. Fran's mission and her commitment to it is renewed in the face of terror and confusion.
Fran goes to the church where she grew up, to talk about a funeral, but instead meets a ghost. Possibly two. And is pulled back in time, into a terrifying day she forgot with a woman she lost.
As they drive home from the prison, Matilda gives Fran her fully-fleshed-out history with John, with herself, and how Gabe came to be. While the raven perches on the side view mirror. It is both harrowing and heart-full. As is the moment when they arrive back in Oka, and Fran walks...all the way Home and braces herself for what's to come.
Fran, Matilda, Gabe, and Surly drive to the Mississippi State Penitentiary to see an unwell John who turns out to have things to say. They aren't alone on the drive. They aren't alone inside the prison, in which chaos, sickness, and rage reign, while Fran, in the parking lot, has a close raven encounter.
Gabriel visits Fran in a dream. And she comes to realize she needs his help. And he needs hers.
Fran returns to Matilda's after a harrowing afternoon and with new information. She prods her aunt for more facts as they alternate eating with truth-hunting. Later, while on a phone call with Noble about emerging details, Fran sees her mother in the window of the kitchen and is again pulled under water.
Fran goes to visit her daddy, Walter, at the care home and is possessed completely by her mother, Robbie, who, dripping with shame and purgatory, has something urgent and painful to tell her ailing and confused husband.
Fran is stoned, trying to stop the pain in her head. So of course. Lamar calls. Then Noble calls. Then she sleeps and dreams of Mother and realizes it's more than a dream, it's a...possession. Who was this woman anyway?
Fran reveals to Matilda what she learned at the police station AND at the river. Fran reveals--unintentionally--that her soul is no longer alone. And she fights with herself and her aunt over what to do next.
A little about where Daddy came from. And why and when he lost his head on Fran. And why Fran worries he might have lost it on her mother, Robbie, in what would end up being his last chance.
Fran—feeling like herself and completely NOT herself—goes to the police station to see Sheriff Noble, where she gets new information, from both this side and the other.
Fran wakes up feeling not entirely herself. And learns from Aunt Matilda long-kept secrets about John and her mother and the "scene of the crime."
Fran is delirious after a cold-river dive and on the way home and at Matilda's cannot tell what's real from dreams. More memories surface, of Mother and of past...loves and past...traumas.
Fran relives the night she came home to find her mother gone and the entire county's worth of cops on her front porch, along with her father, coming apart at the seams. Why wouldn't they let her inside the house? And where was John?
Fran, Surly, and Matilda drive to the Pearl River, to the "site." Fran feels oddly powerful, then oddly numb, then oddly confused. And in the middle of it, she meets the new Black female sheriff. And wonders if she's made a new problem or a new friend. She is consumed by visions.
Fran's memory of the day her mother disappeared in 1991 returns with a vengeance.
Fran Boden, with her dog Surly in tow, returns to Oka, Mississippi and, before she can visit the site of the remains, she must reunite with her ornery Aunt Matilda and her non-verbal cousin Gabe. And contend with a new non-human visitor, not to mention a flood of memories that try to drown her.
Fran remembers her mother...and her father...and the first day she realized she wasn't like anyone else.
There's a man in Fran's house. There's a woman calling Fran's phone. And there's a strange winged thing in Fran's living room. All she wants to do is sleep, but her missing mother has other ideas.
Who is Fran Boden? And why is she in that boat every day, alone, looking for her mother? Where exactly IS her mother?
Just a taste of this character and female-driven Southen Gothic ghost story and moody mystery.
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