Bitter River, Julia Keller

Young Lucinda Trimble had her whole life ahead of her until someone dumped her car in the Bitter River with her in it. Lucinda was bright, compassionate and pregnant.

Prosecutor Belle Elkins has plenty of suspects; Lucinda’s deadbeat dad, the boy she was going to marry, his family, Lucinda’s friends, but she has more on her plate than that. Sherriff Nick Fogelsong isn’t following procedure, Belle’s ex is trying to lure her back to Washington and an old friend of Belle’s from DC is bringing her and rest of Acker’s Gap West Virginia nothing but trouble.