The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

 

This is a very good novel--mostly a rural crime novel, but also a passable bildungsroman (maybe something of a a double-barreled one, given the twinned timelines) with perhaps part of the growing up in this case being a realization that unearned loyalty is a mistake and/or worthless; maybe something about staying where you are needing to be an active choice and not just the result of a lack of options. There's pain and grief here, but what they fuel is less in the way of vengeance than it is a burning need to know. The parallels between past and present play neat thematic chords, as well. I do kinda wish Ms. McHugh had been able to tell the whole novel in just the two first-person POVs, but I get why she needed to start introducing other POVs (and I get why those other POVs are all tight third).