Welcome to  Odessa Blaine

Where the Roots Tangle

A Novel by Odessa Blaine

Published by Mercer University Press

Edwina’s shaky world is rocked by the murder of a childhood friend on a sweltering Georgia day in 1929. War erupts between the fed-up poor folks of Shine Town and Edy’s in-laws, the old money Jacksons of Canes Crossin. Edwina and her sister are trapped in the middle. 

Growing up Shine Town trash with their single mother, Edwina and Josephine knew about hard living. Then Beauregard Jackson planted a prized baby boy in Edy’s sister. Their mother was thrilled to see Jo marry up. Beau’s family was livid. 

The Jacksons were rumored to own everything in the valley and then some. Ruling from the family’s plantations, they clung to bygone ways and enforced their will. 

Until hubris made them vulnerable. 

Edy spent years reconciling love for her sister and hatred of the Jacksons. Jealousy, loneliness, adoration, and defiance warred inside her. The fragile balance crumbles when her mother vanishes, she’s forced to abandon Jo, and Shine Town turns on her.

She turns to the mountains for answers, but finds more confusion when Edy stumbles into the remnants of a people more ancient than memory. They offer an escape,but she can’t leave her sister behind. 

Tripping over prejudice, secrets, and uncertainty, can Edy get out of her own way and save the folks she cares about before Jackson greed gets them all killed?

Get tangled up in hardscrabble Southern living, small town politics, blood feuds, nearly forgotten folkways, family legacy, and a dash of Appalachia magic.