"The Summer Girls of Melrose"
Author: Kirk Gollwitzer
Narrated by: Kirk Gollwitzer
Country: United States
Language: English
Page-count: 240
Audio runtime:  05:32:48
Media type: Audio
Genre(s) :  Coming-of-age story
© 2021

Plot:  "The Summer Girls of Melrose" is a period piece seasoned with historical fact. The Genre is Realistic and Coming-Of-Age fiction.
Premise: Rainy Ray Holford reflects on his ninth grade year in high school in his remote and fictional mountain town of Melrose, North Carolina. Each year the town of Melrose is invaded by a large population of wealthy summer girls from distant families elsewhere. The summer visitors, who were primarily female, came to Melrose, NC to relax and cool off in the comfortable mountains.
There was a huge cultural gap between the locals and the visitors, both in education and wealth.  As a rule, the summer girls were restricted from dating the local boys and adults as well.  The only time the local boys met the summer girls was at the square dances--- this was where both classes would come together.
During the summer of 1969, temptation leads to murder as the authorities strive to find the killer within a number of motivated suspects.
Writing Style:  "The Summer Girls of Melrose" is narrated in a subjective style from the point of view of Rainy Ray Holford.
###   The novel also examines the  complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, familial connection, sex, fear and anxiety.
Music: Street sounds of Saluda, NC during Coon Dog Day
and  traditional American music  performed by Kirk Gollwitzer 

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