Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?
Layers of secrets abound in Heaven’s Crooked Finger. 50-year-old Earl Marcus returns to his hometown in the mountains of Georgia that he left after a failed snake handling forced on him by his father RJ almost killed him at seventeen. RJ is recently deceased and was a fundamentalist preacher in a snake handling church he created decades ago. Earl’s brother, Lester, is running the church but there is talk that RJ has returned from the grave. Earl, who works as a Private Detective in North Carolina, investigates this mystery and others along the way.
The southern gothic atmosphere of lightning (i.e., heaven’s crooked finger), religious fervor and snakes makes this a great fall read. The character dynamics of Earl, Mary, Granny and Rufus make their interactions interesting. The resolution of the mystery is difficult to figure out though some of the clues were easy.
I read this book in less than two days. I woke up in the middle of the night to read it because it was that compelling! This is the first book in a series. I will be pre-ordering the second in the series as soon as it is available. 5 stars!
I won Heaven’s Crooked Finger in a Goodreads giveaway but that has not impacted my review.