DEATH IN THE GREAT DISMAL

Maine farmer/weaver Will Rees is drawn into the wilds of Virginia for a rescue mission that turns murderous in September 1800.

When Rees’ friend Tobias escaped slavery with some help from the Underground Railroad, Ruth, his lover, was afraid to accompany him because she was pregnant. So Tobias wants Rees to return to Virginia with him to help Ruth make the trip north. Lydia Rees, still smarting from Rees’ attraction to the circus rope dancer who beguiled him in A Circle of Dead Girls (2020), insists on accompanying the men. The trip is hard, and when they catch up with Ruth, who’s hiding with several other escaped slaves in a swamp encampment, she’s still unwilling to leave. Even worse, Scipio, one of her companions who’s an enslaved person with a $200 price on his head, is soon shot in the back. Of course Rees decides to investigate, because “solving murders was what he did.” But apart from the fact that Scipio cheated his friend Neptune out of money in a dice game, there’s precious little evidence against anyone. Scipio’s brother, Cinte, seems preoccupied with his unrequited attraction to Sandy, who’s run away from the nearby Sechrest plantation, and Rees can’t believe that the quiet elder Toney or the healer Aunt Suke could have killed anyone. Then Scipio’s body vanishes. Rees is convinced that swamp-dweller Quaco saw something important but can’t figure out how to communicate with a man who speaks only Ibo.

Both the characters and the mystery are smothered by that all-consuming swamp.