Something in the Water

Buried secrets, environmental disaster, and a legacy of corruption hit too close to home when a California native and her family make a fresh start in small-town Texas--and find trouble just beneath the promising surface in this powerful novel for readers of Terry McMillan, Tracy Brown, ReShonda Tate, and Elsie Bryant.

As director of an award-winning investigative news radio show, Billie Jordan is used to helping others fight trouble. But she faces her own when the radio station is sold and she’s unable to find another job. Their savings dwindle as she and her husband struggle to help their son overcome an opioid addiction. When her husband gets a professorship at an HBCU in his hometown, they relocate to get a fresh start. Billie slowly adjusts to a cubicle workspace, sweltering heat, and accepting ＂y’all＂ as a word. All is well until severe storms cause massive destruction and contaminate the town’s water supply--making it unsafe to drink.

Billie learns water woes and boil water notices have existed for years. In her new job at a local bank, she finds connections between money, power, and family, are as dirty as the water. Warned to mind her own business, she remains persistent and discovers a shocking cover-up. Even more shocking is who is involved--and the extent to which they’ll go to protect their interests.

Billie has always advocated for the people over the powerful. But when her son gets in trouble, her silence can make it go away. With her son’s freedom at stake and mounting tensions threatening her marriage, she’ll need all her resources and skills to save her family and expose the corruption . . . if a conspiracy doesn’t drown her first.

Phyllis R. Dixon is the acclaimed author of Intermission, Forty Acres, and Down Home Blues, which was shortlisted for the Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List by the Texas Library Association. She also is a contributor to the New Tri-State Defender book review column and to Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she is a former independent bookstore owner, previously worked for the U.S. Treasury Department, and currently serves on several nonprofit boards. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and can be found online at PhyllisRDixon.com.