Book review: Small town is a dangerous trap in ‘Safe and Sound’

In Laura McHugh's outstanding “Safe and Sound,” escaping their small town is the scariest thing sisters Amelia and Kylee will ever do.

‘Safe and Sound’ by Laura McHugh. Random House, 304 pages, $29

Small towns can be a sanctuary, offering the comfort of family, friends, familiar surroundings and an assured future. But for sisters Amelia and Kylee Crow, their small town of Beaumont, Missouri, is a trap, holding only a dismal future, as Laura McHugh explores in her outstanding “Safe and Sound.”

Beautifully written with precise character studies, “Safe and Sound” joins the growing legion of rural mysteries, where everyone thinks they know everything about their neighbors, but that is far from the truth. Danger lurks in small communities, as it does in big cities, but it sometimes hides.

“Safe and Sound” works well as a story about small-town ennui, of sisterly love, ambition and how some people can be threatened by even the modest goals of another. It also explores how one’s background can seal a person’s future, taking away choice.

Amelia and Kylee fear they will end up with a joyless future like their mother, who works as a stripper, or their aunt, who toils in a meatpacking plant. They want an education, a chance to make something of themselves, mostly away from Beaumont, where people “know every twig on every branch of everyone else’s family tree.”

But Beaumont is a place people don’t leave. The sisters’ cousin Grace was an inspiration before she became a cautionary tale. She had solid plans to leave, even had secured scholarships for college. But six years before, the teenage Grace was babysitting the sisters when she disappeared, a pool of blood left behind. Each year her mother holds a vigil that both mourns Grace but also is a warning to not leave. When a woman’s skeleton is found near the county line, the sisters decide they will try to find out what happened to Grace.

McHugh delivers an emotional story as she delves into the psyches of Amelia and Kylee, who have learned to rise above the limitations of their home life. Their goals are modest, but if they can achieve just one rung on the ladder, they will be all right. Leaving will be the scariest action the sisters will ever take. Doing nothing will be easy, but it will doom them. McHugh also weaves in several shady characters, each realistic in their motives.

Missouri is seldom the setting for mystery fiction, but McHugh has been focusing her novels on The Show-Me State with aplomb. McHugh perfectly captures the southwest Missouri landscape where she places Beaumont.

Mystery Fiction Collection opens at Pompano Library

Howard, Matthew, and Laurence Rubel have fond childhood memories of being introduced to the pleasures of reading, especially mystery fiction, by their parents, the late Isabel and Stanley Rubel, during their frequent trips to the Pompano Beach Library.

The family’s love of mystery fiction continues with the Rubel Mystery Collection, which will have its grand opening reception beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at the Pompano Beach Library and Cultural Center, 50 Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach, 954-357-7830. Reservations are requested. Register at broward.libnet.info/event.

Guests will include members of the Rubel family, Broward Public Library Foundation members, Pompano Beach Friends of the Library, and friends of the Rubel family. South Florida Sun Sentinel Mystery Fiction Columnist Oline H. Cogdill will discuss the importance of mysteries and their role reflecting society.

The library also is planning mystery author activities and trivia during the opening reception.

The collection is being funded by the Isabel & Stanley Rubel Family Endowment Fund, created through gifts from friends, family, and community members. Income generated by the endowment fund is being used to promote new and upcoming mystery authors. New books will be added to the Broward County Library, collection and author talks will be hosted at the Pompano Beach Library. To date, the fund has purchased over 40 volumes for the library with plans to add more throughout 2024.

The Broward Public Library Foundation has worked with the Rubel family to create the fund. Howard Rubel said in a press release that his parents “had great vision to see the possibilities of Pompano Beach” and that the family is “delighted to give back to a community. that Isabel and Stanley joined over 65 years ago.”