Since I only had one other person join me on Leap Day, you don’t get to see any new material for the next novel…yet. Instead, you get to learn about this wonderful novel by my mentor, Steve Yarbrough. Visible Spirits is an incredible racial adventure set in the south in 1902. It follows several families in a small town and the uproar one white man instigates over a black postmistress.

First of all, this is an incredibly gripping story. I had trouble putting it down at any point because I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. You could feel the tension rise so palpably, and you cringed every time Tandy did something to deliberately raise the racial tensions in the town. This book really engages its audience and sucks them in. It isn’t alienating, like quite a few novels I have read that feature the racial tensions in the south; instead, it readily welcomes the audience in to the town and makes them part of the drama.

And, of course, the writing itself is quite excellent. I love the way Yarbrough writes because it is so simple and clean that the writing fades back and leaves an vibrant community, history, and story front and center. It allows for full immersion into an incredibly detailed world.

If you’re looking for a novel that feels truly authentic to the time and place, Visible Spirits is a good bet. Between the griping plot and the clean writing, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. And, as with others of Yarbrough’s work, the climax was inevitable, yet surprising none-the-less, which is probably my favorite aspect of his work.