Searching for an escape in the form of a gripping, provocative, and encapsulating murder mystery novel that will keep you wanting more? This 2018 novel is truly a love letter to Mother Nature, as retired wildlife biologist Delia Owens draws on her past wilderness experiences to bring her first novel to life. 

Not only has this novel kept critics on their toes with a variety of mixed reviews but it has put Owens at the top of the New York Times best sellers list and Fiction Best Sellers list as an up-and-coming author.

Where The Crawdads Sing transports you to a humid and abnormal summer in North Carolina where readers are quickly introduced to Kya or ‘the marsh girl’ – as she is often referred to. As an outcast, after having been abandoned by her family at six years old, Kya learns to fend for herself in the eerie marshes in the early 1950s. 

As a recluse, our main character is often ostracised by her neighbours for her lack of social skills and obscure affinity with nature. So, she finds herself befriending a local boy, Tate, who teaches her how to read and becomes a tutor and Kya’s only friend – before later leaving her too. This tale of loneliness explores how ‘the marsh girl’ navigates relationships through her understanding of nature; which later spirals into an affair with the local heart throb, leading to her becoming the main suspect in his unforeseen murder. 

Owens’s ongoing elaborate descriptions of Kya’s peace within nature in comparison to her unsettled tone when facing human interaction are what truly captivate readers who pick up this book.

Despite critics regarding Owens’s less sophisticated tone of voice and the novel itself being compared to ‘young adult fiction’, these alleged faults did not deter us from reading this bestseller. Owens perfectly weaves together Kya’s slow-paced marsh life at the start with the tremendous and thrilling courtroom mess that we are later catapulted into.

Our protagonist’s journey through grief and betrayal keeps you turning the pages to see what could happen next. Just like all brilliant thriller novels, Where The Crawdads Sing, leaves you with a sense of uneasiness and questions that you know just cannot be answered…

Who is Delia Owens?

Similarly to her renowned protagonist, Owens takes pride in her ever growing love for the outside world as a wildlife biologist. She drew on her experience in the wilderness and seclusion from society as inspiration for the character she had begun working on over a decade before putting pen to paper. 

In 1974, Owens and her husband set off to study wildlife in research camps in the Kalahari Desert to closely study Lions and Hyenas. This later helped them become renowned for their education foundation work in Zambia. However, this later led the Owens into a controversy of their own regarding a real-life murder case of a poacher. Owens herself likens her story to that of Kya’s on account of the vicious rumours and accusations that were put against her. 

“It’s painful to have that come up, but it’s what Kya had to deal with, name-calling,” Ms. Owens said during an interview in New York in the autumn of 2023. “You just have to put your head up or down, or whichever, you have to keep going and be strong. I’ve been charged by elephants before.”

Want to read more?

Intrigued by Delia Owens’ riveting, suspenseful novel? Why not browse some of our previous book reviews in similar genres like Thrillers, Dramas, Crime and Fiction? 

In the meantime, check out our blog for our insightful literary advice and keep up to date with our latest reviews page to see what we’ve been reading in our spare time too.