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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Song of the Chimney Sweep by Tamatha Cain traces the life of Betty Van Disson, nee Langdon, from a winter night in Florida in 1969 through decades shaped by obligation and secrecy. As a teenager, Betty meets singer Dominicus Owens and imagines a future beyond home while caring for her ailing mother, Delores. Returning home alters her path, leading to her marriage to motel owner Randell Van Disson and a private life recorded in hidden diaries. Moving decades forward, podcast producer Melody Hinterson examines Betty’s disappearance from a roadside motel near the Florida-Georgia line. Interviews and recovered records reopen a story long left untouched and link the present to events that began before Melody was born. The book moves between past and present, following a woman’s decisions and the consequences surfacing years later.
Tamatha Cain’s Song of the Chimney Sweep is a brilliantly layered crime novel. Betty's disappearance is shadowed by her husband’s silence, stalled police work, and a massive number of unanswered questions. Cain balances the story with scenes that are equal parts heartening and jarring, like Melody hearing long-buried family recordings that reframe the case, and later standing inside a locked shed as hidden diaries surface and change every assumption she had. I love a strong, plucky female protagonist, and Melody is perfect as a determined podcast host guiding her own investigation. Dorian Santos is equally endearing through his steady collaboration and willingness to do what it takes to protect real people. The settings are described with care, from the ruined Maryview Motor Inn choked by vines, to Melody’s studio, crowded with cables and borrowed furniture. Well written and full of surprises, and along the lines of Hearn Hill's If Anything Should Happen, Melody is a character I hope to meet again.
