Fourteen-year-old Afton is alienated from her mother, who is the perfect wife when her sailor husband is home, but emotionally distant when he is away. When her mother’s brother, Bailey, turns up — an uncle Afton never knew existed — Afton begins to wonder who her mother really is. With quiet determination, Afton sets out to uncover Bailey’s secret, and along the way she learns the price that a family pays for letting the past fester unresolved. In a style richly evocative of small-town southern life in the 1940s, Scorpio’s Child shows Kezi Matthews at her best. The characters that populate this poignant coming-of-age novel are as unusual and complicated as the situations that bind them. Matthews’s straightforward handling of difficult themes creates a depth of feeling that will leave a lasting impression.