The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

The Girl Who Stopped SwimmingLaurel Gray Hawthorne wakes up to a ghost standing by her bed. The ghost leads Laurel to its body in the pool of the backyard. The dead girl is Laurel’s daughter’s best friend Molly. The police rule it an accident, but Laurel knows that her daughter, Shelby, and her cousin Bet, who had been there for vacation, know something about Molly’s death. Laurel needs to get aggressive and wants her sister Thalia to come and help. Her husband, David, asks his mother-in-law, who wants to sweep everything under the rug over instead. Through this death and mystery, Laurel thrashes out issues in her life and learns some family secrets that have affected her.

This is a great book. I would have no problem giving it to my teenager (if he would deign to read what I would recommend) blacking out 3 words in one scene where Laurel was very drunk and very mad. It’s a great mystery, I had no idea who dunnit and I really liked the way Joshilyn resolved the family issues.