The Marsh Queen

(Hardback)

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For fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, this marvelous debut (Alice McDermott, National Book Awardwinning author of The Ninth Hour) follows a Washington, DC, artist as she faces her past and the secrets held in the waters of Floridas lush swamps and wetlands.

Loni Murrow is an accomplished bird artist at the Smithsonian who loves her job. But when she receives a call from her younger brother summoning her back home to help their obstinate mother recover after an accident, Lonis neat, contained life in Washington, DC, is thrown into chaos, and she finds herself exactly where she does not want to be.

Going through her mothers things, Loni uncovers scraps and snippets of a time in her life she would prefer to forgeta childhood marked by her father Boyds death by drowning and her mother Ruths persistent bad mood. When Loni comes across a single, cryptic note from a strangerThere are some things I have to tell you about Boyds death she begins a dangerous quest to discover the truth, all the while struggling to reconnect with her mother and reconcile with her brother and his wife, who seem to thwart her at every turn. To make matters worse, she meets a man in Florida whose attractive simple charm threatens everything shes worked toward.

Pulled between worldsher professional accomplishments in Washington, and the small town of her childhoodLoni must decide whether to delve beneath the surface into murky half-truths and either avenge the past or bury it, once and for all.

The Marsh Queen explores what it means to be a daughter and how we protect the ones we love. Suzanne Feldman, author of Sisters of the Great War, writes that fans of Delia Owens and Lauren Groff will find this a wonderful and absorbing read.

Reviews

The books lyrical evocations of natural Florida, beautiful but perilous, ring true, as does it depiction of the entanglements of small-town life. Family dynamics are a strong point, and the author builds suspense skillfully as Loni unearths connections between past and present that could be lethal. This debut novel, set in rural Florida, deftly combines family drama and tense thriller.
Kirkus
With its atmospheric swampland setting, Hartmans debut brings to mind Delia Owens' blockbuster Where the Crawdads Sing (2018), while the mystery itself is on par with Stacy Willinghams A Flicker in the Dark (2022) . . . [T]he fast pace and short chapters keep the story moving for an enjoyable ride.
Booklist
Hartman debuts with a well-crafted and fast-paced family drama set in the Florida panhandle . . . [Her] depiction of the natural setting show her to be a talented writer, as do the well-executed takes on museum work, botany, and ornithology. Readers will hope to see Loni back for more.
Publishers Weekly
Hartmans first novel is interwoven with strong natural history themes, evoking the works of Barbara Kingsolver.
Library Journal
Steeped in the lush rhythms and murky shadows of the Florida Wetlands, Virginia Hartmans The Marsh Queen is at once a gripping mystery, a devastating family drama, a romance, and a tribute to the natural world. Loni Murrow is a character who will stay with me for a long time. An astonishing debut.
Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept
Part romance, part mystery, The Marsh Queen unwinds its entangled story lines with measured grace.Virginia Hartman shares with her bird artist narrator a keen eye and a precise touch, as well as a wry understanding of the way the natural world comforts and sustains. This is a marvelous debut, witty and wise.
Alice McDermott, National Book Award-winning author of The Ninth Hour
A unique blend of literature and mystery, with deft evocations of Floridas flora and sometimes malignant fauna,The Marsh Queenfinds a compelling Southern-noir niche all its own and marks Virginia Hartman as a writer to watch.
Louis Bayard, author ofCourting Mr. Lincoln, Lucky Strikes, andThe Pale Blue Eye
The setting is distinctive, Loni is like a girl-detective grown up, and it crackles with trouble and action.
Ellen Prentiss Campbell, author of Friedas Song
Subtle and complex, The Marsh Queen navigates the currents and backwaters of family relationships, the Florida swamplands, and a mysterious death that occurred twenty-five years before. Like Barbara Kingsolver, Hartman delves deep into the natural world to explore her characters, and in this case, the connections between one haunted woman and the waters that took her father's life.Fans of Delia Owens and Lauren Groff will find thisawonderful and absorbing read.
Suzanne Feldman, author of Sisters of the Great War
Loni Murrow, the protagonist in Virginia Hartman's harrowing urban-rural novel, knows that it's not that you cant go home again, but what wretched truths might await you there. In The Marsh Queen there are stories within stories, there are stunning family secrets, there's an almost gothic sance atmosphereall of that is beautifully orchestrated. But at heart this novel is a kind of mythic journey; let's call it The Daughter's Search for Truth, Love and Redemption.
Howard Norman, author of Next Life Might Be Kinder

Author Bio

Virginia Hartman has an MFA in creative writing from American University and is on the faculty at George Washington University. Her stories have been shortlisted for the New Letters Awards and the Dana Awards.The Marsh Queenis her first novel. Find out more at VirginiaHartman.com.