A note from her mother sends Melody Mahaffey home after a
long absence, ditching her Christian music band in a very
public display. Geneva's note indicates only that Geneva
has left, Melody's father is dying, and her brother is
unable to care for their father. Unbeknownst to Melody
or her brother, Obi and his son, Liam, have been offered
sanctuary on the Mahaffey land after fleeing from their
traveling life along the river. Meanwhile, a storm is
coming and a historic flood is about to wreak havoc while
past secrets come floating to the surface.
Tiffany Quay Tyson does a marvelous job at weaving
together multiple storylines, painting a very dark
picture of the secrets that lurk beneath the surface.
Some of the twists were ones I expected but Tiffany Quay
Tyson throws in a few surprises. I had to keep reading
just to see how all the various threads would be
resolved!
However, it is the quirky and sometimes dislikable
characters who truly make THREE RIVERS memorable. All of
Tiffany Quay Tyson's characters are flawed, and facing a
disaster doesn't necessarily bring out the best in any of
them. And yet, oddly, their intertwined stories are
compelling as the craziness just seems to grow and grow
with each page. My only real disappointment was the
portrayal of Bobby and his brain damage, although I
appreciate Tiffany Quay Tyson's depiction of his family's
lack of understanding of his potential.
THREE RIVERS is a dark, sometimes disturbing portrait of
families already on the brink of crisis facing a natural
disaster outside of their own making. There are no heroes
in Tiffany Quay Tyson's world but instead people just
struggling to live from day to day. The quirky
characters and the social issues addressed in THREE
RIVERS would make it a fascinating book club selection.
A massive storm was coming straight for Mama's little
plot of land in the
Mississippi Delta
and there was no way any of them could outrun the
weather.
For three years Melody Mahaffey has been on the road,
touring as a
keyboardist with a terrible
Christian pop band she can hardly stand. So when her
mother calls, full of her
usual dire news
and dramatic pronouncements, Melody is relieved to pack
her bags and call it
quits. But at the
sprawling, defunct Three Rivers Farm her family calls
home, Melody is
shocked to discover her
father is dying. Even worse, her mother has abandoned the
family, leaving
Melody the sole
caretaker of her father and brain-damaged brother. Sure
that her daughter
will do the right
thing, Geneva leaves to seek spiritual guidance and break
things off with her
long-time lover.
Rain begins to fall and an epic flood threatens the
Mississippi Delta. While
Melody tries to get a
handle on the chaos at home, a man and his little boy
squat on her land,
escaping their own
nightmare. Obi is on the run from a horrific mistake, and
he's intent on
keeping his son with
him at any cost. When the storm arrives, though, they
have no choice but to
take shelter in
Melody's house. And the waters just keep rising.
A lifetime of lies, misunderstandings and dark secrets
bubble to the surface as
the flood
destroys the land and threatens their lives. Set against
the fertile but
dangerous landscape of the
rural south near the fictional town of White Forest,
Mississippi, Three Rivers
beautifully weaves
together three parallel stories, told over three days, as
each character is
propelled headlong into
the storm.
Excerpt
Bobby was eleven when he answered the call of the Lord.
It was summertime and hot then, as it was now. They
worshipped in a small, old church while a new sanctuary
was built. The congregation looked to that new sanctuary
with as much reverence as they looked toward God. When
Pastor Tuttle announced they would worship in the new
church the very next week, Bobby sprinted up the aisle to
dedicate his soul, determined to be the first body dunked
in the new baptismal pool.
For the past year, the church had contracted with a
nearby hotel to use its pool once a month for baptisms.
It was awkward when guests in town for reunions or
weddings came down on Sunday mornings to swim off their
Saturday night hangovers. Before that, they’d done all
their baptisms in the Tallahatchie River. That’s where
Melody was dunked, where she felt the cool squish of mud
between her toes, where she ate sour cream cake and fried
chicken while the sun and a warm breeze dried her hair.
It was perfect until little Johnny McPherson was bit by a
water moccasin at his baptism. Plenty of folks said
Johnny was an evil child and the devil had come back in
that old familiar form to claim his soul. That Johnny
survived and went on to brag about his brush with death
just reinforced the gossip. Most people, though, knew you
could enter snake-infested waters only so many times
without getting bit. Those people began raising money for
a new sanctuary, snake-free baptismal pool included.
On the morning of the baptism, every seat was filled.
People who showed up for church only at Christmas and
Easter were there, wearing their finest clothes. The new
sanctuary was spectacular with gleaming polished oak
pews. The choir wore new rich purple robes with gold
embroidery around the neck and arms. Melody, Bobby, and
Mama sat in the third row. Melody’s father could not be
lured to church for any reason. When the choir rose to
sing “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” Bobby slipped
through a side door behind the choir loft. Pastor Tuttle
followed. The choir sang on and on. When they finished,
Pastor Tuttle emerged clad in dark robes. He stepped down
into the pool. A soft light emanated from the water and
shone on his face. A microphone was attached to one side
of the pool, and Pastor Tuttle took it in his hands.
“Friends and family in the Lord.” His voice boomed,
magnified by the microphone and tiles. When Bobby
appeared behind the pastor, poised to step down into the
water, Melody put a fist to her mouth. She was overcome
with the beauty of her little brother, and not for the
first time. Pastor Tuttle stepped to one side and offered
his hand to Bobby. Bobby smiled, turned his head left and
right, drawing out the moment for full effect. He looked
heavenward, then reached down to take the pastor’s hand.
That was when it all went wrong.
The microphone slipped from the pastor’s hand and
splashed into the water. Pastor Tuttle yelped, and
disappeared. Bobby’s beautiful face contorted. His neck
snapped back like someone having a seizure. Melody’s
mother broke the stunned silence, screaming, “Let go. Let
go! Let go!” She didn’t need a microphone to be heard.
Bobby jerked, spasmed, fell back onto the hard tile
steps. Time passed, though Melody would never know how
much, and the sound of a bleating ambulance grew louder
until it was deafening. Sunshine poured down the aisle of
the church as a pair of paramedics rushed in.
The congregation remained in the pews, some standing,
some slumping forward, but Melody’s mother moved. She
sprinted through the door Bobby had entered earlier and
reappeared in the baptismal pool, where she sank down on
the top step and pulled Bobby onto her lap. Her skirt, a
beautiful linen the color of butter pecan ice cream,
gaped open, revealing a glimpse of her lavender silk
panties, a disturbing detail that would remain vivid in
Melody’s memory for the rest of her life. Mama stroked
Bobby’s hair and seemed to speak to him, though he didn’t
respond. One of the paramedics appeared and reached for
Bobby. Mama reared her head back and hissed. The
paramedic stumbled, nearly fell into the water. He looked
confused. “Mama,” Melody said, her voice too soft to be
heard. She spoke up. “Mama, you have to let him go. Let
them take him.” Mama’s lips kept moving; her hands
stroked Bobby’s face. It was too much, too intimate a
display for church, no matter how dire the situation.
Melody’s face went hot. “Please.” She appealed to the
paramedic. “Please help my little brother.” The paramedic
locked eyes with her and she saw that he was scared and
very young, but he nodded and pried Bobby from Mama’s
grasp, checked for a pulse, put his mouth on Bobby’s
mouth, until Bobby’s hands fluttered around the man’s
face. He lifted Bobby, carried him into the main
sanctuary, placed him on a stretcher, and wheeled him
down the aisle. A second stretcher carried Pastor Tuttle,
who was still and gray and obviously dead. Finally, they
came back for Melody’s mother, who twitched and cried out
some sort of gibberish. No one came for Melody, who was
left to wonder what would happen next.
From THREE RIVERS by Tiffany Quay Tyson, on sale July 21,
2015, from Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s
Press, LLC.
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