Life is hard for everybody in 1932 America. In the depths of the Great Depression people did what was necessary to survive whether it was legal or not. They clung to each other whether it was acceptable or not, and they exercised their talents whether it was believable or not. Trinidad Bates is just a lady trying to deal with the strain of society's ills and the recent death of her husband. She bakes bread, tends her garden, and when the need arises, rescues her brother Parn... again. The locals come to her to find the right location for a well or to buy her bread, but mostly they let her alone and she works through her grief.

Parn is jailed for murdering his partner-in-bootlegging.  Trini agrees to dowse for Merle's location because she assumes that the man has been in an auto accident in the hills, and finding him anywhere—dead or alive—will clear her brother of the charges. This is not the case. There are secrets to be uncovered in Ludlin that will explain why Merle was murdered, why the Sheriff has a grudge against Parn, why bootlegging is tolerated, who is running around with somebody else's spouse and what the light is at the end of Trini's tunnel.

I liked this book because Trini was a person, not a character, although I thought she was too enlightened, or maybe too educated, about crisis counseling for a normal 1930's person. We didn't get societal immersion in that skill set until the 1980's when every other story on TV was about child abuse. That she noticed a problem isn't unreasonable because dowsing is an intuitive art form. A dowser would naturally be more aware of another person's internalized pain. The dowsing aspect of the story is not sensationalized, which is great! The matter-of-fact approach leads me to believe that the author is personally familiar with the gift. This book will be welcomed on the shelves of the intuitive practitioner in your life.