Hush, Swing, Hush

“While I sat there thinking how that swing’s sound was an unnerving creak that hadn’t changed in thirty-some-odd years and was a sound I would forever associate with the father of my childhood, I couldn’t have imagined how everything I held to be true about that father would soon change. The discoveries to come were simply beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.” —from Hush, Swing, Hush

Laurie Parker, beloved children’s book writer/illustrator and author of The Matchstick Cross and Yonder Breaks the Morning, treats readers to a smartly-woven saga with Hush, Swing, Hush, her third novel. The wordsmith has used her unique southern voice to craft a distinctive and memorable story peppered with humorous and touchingly-drawn characters. Dee Loder, a forty-year-old divorcée and school librarian in Meridian, Mississippi, has a lot on her plate in the spring of 2008. First and foremost, she is dealing with the ongoing challenges of being the mom of a special-needs child, an eleven-year-old boy with Asperger Syndrome whose dad is a loudmouthed high-school football coach and little help with their son. Then, when her book-hoarding father passes away suddenly, Dee, a book lover herself, is left to deal with both the memories of a man she never really knew, as well as the overwhelming number of boxes he crammed into the Craftsman-style bungalow in which she grew up.
When a handsome man named Leland Dixon arrives in town from Dallas with a guitar and a gallant willingness to help her out, things start to get dicey for this mother of a misfit and daughter of a mystery. Before she knows it, life begins dishing out a heaping helping of bombshells, and she is hit head-on with the heavy realization that she may ultimately be rewriting more than just her own history.
With a highly original premise and a twist readers will not see coming, Hush, Swing, Hush is a thought provoking tale of long-held secrets, misplaced accusations, and most of all, a mother’s love.
Learn more about the author at www.laurieparkerwriter.com.