The Postmaster’s Daughter

The Postmaster’s Daughter by Sharon Mabry is a 1930s murder mystery set in Appalachia. When a marriage proposal brings together two families in East Tennessee, the wealthy and powerful Cantrells and the hardworking and respected Putnams, everyone is shocked by a sudden murder that halts the union. Sharon Mabry’s first novel, The Postmaster’s Daughter, is a literary fiction performance that shows Mabry’s ear for character details and her ability to weave a murder plot that keeps the reader’s interest on the stage of the novel. The Postmaster’s Daughter not only leads you into the working kitchen and tastes of cinnamon buns made by Viege Putnam, but it also takes you for a ride in Jack Cantrell’s ’29 Model J Duesenberg Phaeton. Mabry arranges each scene and action with precision.

“The Putnams and the Cantrells: two very different families whose lives are torn apart over the murder of a young woman. This southern mystery becomes more complicated with each chapter as elements of region, family, and sordid intrigue slowly heat to a boil. Sharon Mabry’s The Postmaster’s Daughter is beautifully written in a clearly Southern gothic tradition. Mabry is a natural storyteller and has a distinctive, southern style that may remind readers of Flannery O’Connor or Susan Glaspell. Her rolling descriptions and emphasis on interwoven storytelling has the reader hearing characters’ southern accents and leaning in to hear the many stories they tell. Readers will want to pour some sweet tea and sit down for a spell with Mabry’s The Postmaster’s Daughter.”-Khristeena Lute, author of Finding Grace and Grit