When Cicadas Cry
Publisher: Union Square & Co. | May 7, 2024
Native South Carolinian Caroline Cleveland combines her lifelong passion for storytelling with thirty years of experience practicing law for her upcoming debut novel, WHEN CICADAS CRY.
Growing up in the small, insular town of Walterboro, SC, Caroline witnessed first-hand how easily social injustice and prejudice can consume a community where everyone knows each other’s business. And she lives only blocks away from Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine Black parishioners were massacred during a Bible study session by a white supremacist in 2015. Her decades spent practicing law have given her a front row seat to the inner workings of the judicial system and to state and local governmental agencies, including law enforcement.
In WHEN CICADAS CRY, Zach Stander, a young lawyer with a checkered past, gets a phone call that will change his life. It’s Elijah Jenkins, an older Black man he met while giving a one-day free legal clinic in rural Colleton County. A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross at the New Hope Baptist Church out on Cicada Road. Eli’s grandson Samuel was arrested after authorities found him kneeling over her body, covered in blood. Eli insists his grandson is innocent and begs Zach to take on his defense. The low country is fraught with racial tension, the victim’s family has deep roots in the community, and the local solicitor is powerful and influential. Zach’s life is already in shambles from his past mistakes, and he has reservations about taking on such high odds. But when Addie Stone, a private investigator—and Zach’s fiancée—convinces him that saving young Sam might be the only path to redemption, Zach gathers his courage.
At the same time, Addie investigates a local cold case—two young women were murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro. The killer left no trace, and thirty-four years later, their deaths are still unsolved. As Addie sifts through the evidence, she wonders if there might be a connection to the present-day murder. So many long-buried secrets…would someone kill again to keep them?
WHEN CICADAS CRY is a dazzling, immersive, and surprising novel that’s ideal for fans of thrillers such as Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls and Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark, as well as for true crime aficionados fascinated by high profile cases such as the Murdaugh murder trial (which was held in Walterboro).
“John Grisham meets Harper Lee in this immersive and thought-provoking Southern legal thriller. Caroline Cleveland’s talented storytelling propels this realistic tale of secrets and history, combined with the power of contemporary passion and prejudice. The setting is authentic, the characters relatable, and the story propulsive and engaging. Standing ovation for this brilliant debut!” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of One Wrong Word
“A twisty narrative of secrets and lies, When Cicadas Cry is equal parts courtroom thriller and gripping mystery.” —John McMahon, author of The Good Detective
“Cleveland weaves all of these elements—the good old boys, the Spanish moss, the quirky beach dwellers, the faux-friendly neighbors, and the small-town preachers—into her murder mystery in a way that will have many Lowcountry readers mumbling, ‘Oh I know that place.’” — Garden & Gun
