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Prohibition, the Ku Klux Klan, and Hamlet collide in this richly imagined historical mystery-now in paperback

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A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare´s Hamlet , The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.

1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee´s oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now the killer is out of jail and back in town, and he´s claiming that Hanalee´s father´s death wasn´t an accident at all. Instead, he says that Hank was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him-who just so happens to be Hanalee´s new stepfather.

In order to get the answers she needs, Hanalee will have to ask a "haint" wandering the roads at night-her father himself.

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Cat Winters is the author of In the Shadow of Blackbirds and The Cure for Dreaming . In the Shadow of Blackbirds collected three starred reviews and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award for debut YA fiction. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

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