Sundown Over Deep Water - Frances Needham

In the wake of the 1921 Tulsa massacre, Curtis flees the smoldering ruins of Greenwood, carrying the "smoke that never leaves" in his lungs and the memory of ash in his wake. Seeking sanctuary from a world turned to fire, he navigates the treacherous gauntlet of the Jim Crow South, outrunning the shadows of deadly sundown towns to reach the only refuge he has left: his childhood home in Alabama.

But the sanctuary he imagined has been scorched by a new nightmare. Curtis arrives to find a lynching has claimed the land, and the mother and sisters who were his last tether to hope have vanished into the dark. Now, he must plunge into the unforgiving Alabama swamps, tracking the remnants of his family through a landscape of hidden terrors. In a journey of survival and soul, Curtis must find his kin before the darkness of the Deep South swallows the last of his bloodline.