Deep Down
by Karen Harper
Published by Mira Publishing
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Reviewed by Sara Porter
Jessie Lockwood left her Appalachian Kentucky home to pursue a career in medicine–and to flee a romantic scandal. She is called back home after her mother disappears while counting the local herb, ginseng, for preservation purposes. Jessie returns home to search for her mother, reunite with a former boyfriend, and encounter dangers in the woods, including activists, business people with hidden agendas, and a dark creature who could be the Appalachian answer to Bigfoot.
Deep Down has a wonderful sense of place in its descriptive setting. Everything is described, from the forest with its imposing hills and gnarled trees, to the towns where the locals have Internet service, but still cling to the old ways.
Deep Down becomes a character itself as it seems to hover between the past and the future. The ginseng, or sang, as the locals call it, is also described very well. Locals sell to outsiders to use for herbal teas and energy drinks. They also sell it to investors, causing greed and illegal stealing of the crop–now considered endangered. Ginseng almost becomes a stand-in for gold as people squabble over it, break laws to obtain it, make deals with shady customers–and maybe kill for it.
Along with a memorable setting, Harper writes a brilliant suspense plot with believable characters. Jessie in particular stands out as a woman torn between her Appalachian roots and the big-city life that she has grown accustomed to. This struggle is personified in her “two mothers.” First is her biological mother, Mariah, a stern but loving soul who has a love of this small town and its peculiar ways. And then Jessie’s benefactor, Elinor, a proper English woman who supported Jessie financially through school and provided support during the young woman’s travels through Europe, and her research on breast cancer. She also has a burgeoning romance with former bad boy turned sheriff, Drew Webb who aids Jessie in her search.
Armchair Interviews says: Good characters, good suspense–good storytelling.
Author’s Web site: http://www.KarenHarperAuthor.com