Hub City Press
March, 2018
Set in contemporary Louisville, Leesa Cross-Smith’s mesmerizing first
novel surrounding the death of a police officer is a requiem for
marriage, friendship and family, from an author Roxane Gay has called “a
consummate storyteller.”
Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her
husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in
July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in
to help her raise six-month-old Noah.
Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices:
Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak
blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending
fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton,
as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he
decides to track down the biological father he’s never known.
Set over the course of one snowed-in weekend, where a fallen police
officer’s widow and his best friend must confront the feelings they have
for each other after his death. In the vein of Jojo Moyes’ After You, WHISKEY & RIBBONS
explores the life that continues beyond loss, with a complicated and
yet vital brotherly dynamic reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys.
It’s a meditation on grief, hope, motherhood, brotherhood and
surrogate fatherhood, and a requiem for marriage, friendship and family.
Above all, it’s a novel about what it means – and whether it’s possible
– to heal.