Meet LO

Lo Patrick is a former lawyer and current novelist living in the suburbs of Atlanta. Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and was a Reader’s Digest Editor’s Pick. Her next book, The Night the River Wept, comes out July 2nd, 2024.

About the Book

Fierce 12-year-old Kay can’t ignore the problems surfacing in her troubled home―or the mysterious marsh outside. It will take all of her courage and perseverance to survive her family drama as their dark secrets come to life in the wake of a small-town murder.

One hot, sticky summer in Bledsoe, Georgia, twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker stumbles across a stilt house in a neighboring marsh and upon Andy Webber, a boy about her age. He and his father have recently moved back to Georgia from California, and rumors of the suspicious drowning death of Andy’s mother years earlier have chased them there and back.

Kay is fascinated and enamored with Andy, and she doesn’t listen when her father tells her to stay away from the Webbers. But when Kay’s sister goes missing, the mystery of Mrs. Webber’s death―and Kay’s parents’ potential role in it―comes to light. Kay and her brothers must navigate the layers of secrets that emerge in the course of the investigation as their family, and the world as they knew it, unravels around them.

At once wickedly funny and heartbreaking, perfect for fans of Kim Michele Richardson, The Floating Girls is a stunning southern mystery, a wonderfully atmospheric coming-of-age family drama told from the perspective of a fierce 12-year-old marsh girl―reminiscent of a modern-day Scout Finch―as she unravels the secrets that threaten her entire family.