WHAT HAPPENED IN BEULAH
by Christy Scott Cashman
October 19 - November 13, 2026 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
A teenage girl uncovers the dark secrets of her Smoky Mountain town while searching for a missing classmate in this gripping coming-of-age mystery perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing.
Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, Beulah has always seemed steady—rooted in tradition, shaped by generations, and slow to change. But in 1986, the ground has shifted, and no one feels that more than fifteen-year-old Barrett Childress Owens. Between her parents’ unraveling marriage and a school full of kids she can’t connect with, she feels invisible in her own hometown.
When Lacy Gunderson, the captivating new girl everyone is curious about, suddenly vanishes, the town’s calm surface fractures. Search parties comb the woods. A police investigation begins. Rumors multiply. Families close ranks. And Barrett begins to sense how much the adults around her choose not to say. As Beulah clings to its usual rituals—including the annual Miss Kudzu pageant, which has shaped local girlhood for decades—Barrett is forced to navigate a community where loss lingers in the air and secrets are carefully kept. Her journey through the uncertainty reshapes her understanding of friendships, family, and the complex place she calls home.
A rich coming-of-age story with a pulse of mystery and a budding romance, What Happened in Beulah explores the fault lines of a small town and the courage it takes to face the truths people would rather bury.
Praise for What Happened in Beluah:
"What Happened in Beluah is a wonderful book—funny, sharp and poignant. It's a story designed for all of us, of all ages, all wisdoms. It points to the necessity of recovery. It's a novel of ghosts present and ghosts past, with alcoholics and dreamers and preachers and small town grifters all coming together in one place—the everywhere of guilt and consequence, the kudzu of our lives."
~ Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon and Twist
"What Happened in Beulah cannot but remind us of what Hemingway said: ‘There is no friend as loyal as a book.’ Here, page after page, Christy Scott Cashman succeeds in making the reader hang onto the story as the drama on Beulah’s seemingly calm surface ruptures like a scene of serene rain that suddenly modulates into a rumbling thunderstorm. I'm sure the book will be a loyal friend to many readers."
~ Patrick Kabanda, author of The Creative Wealth of Nations
Book Details:
Genre: YA Mystery, Coming of Age
Published by: She Writes Press
Publication Date: October 20, 2026
Number of Pages: 288 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 9798896364801
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | She Writes Press
Read an excerpt:
Author Bio:
Christy Scott Cashman is a best-selling and award-winning author with multiple national honors. A writer, actress, and producer, she has decades of storytelling experience across film, literature, and the arts. Christy is the founder of YouthINK, a creative arts foundation empowering young people through imagination and expression, and serves on the Board of the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Christy divides her time between Boston, Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she enjoys family life with three dogs and four horses.
Catch Up With Christy Scott Cashman:
christycashman.com
Goodreads
Instagram - @cashman.christy
Facebook - @christycashmanauthor
Review:
A riveting coming-of-age tale set in a small town hiding an awful secret.
What Happened in Beulah by Christy Scott Cashman is a riveting coming-of-age story set in a close-knit small Southern town with a terrible secret. Barrett Childress Owens is fifteen, a sophomore at Beulah High School in 1985, when the Gunderson family from New York City moves to town. Their cool daughter, Lacy, so very different from the local kids, is in Barrett’s class and would be a figure of awe in Barrett’s opinion if she wasn’t coming between Barrett and her best friend, Cassie. But then one day, in a town where nothing bad ever happens, Lacy goes missing.
Barrett, the young narrator of the story, is doing the best she can with the hand she’s been dealt. With her parents divorced, her father, a lay preacher, and her mother, the last of one of the town’s founding families, a former Miss Kudzu, and the town drunk, she’s shy, introverted, damaged from her parents’ breakup and their separate pains, and the target of every school bully since day one. Her only friend is the popular, stalwart, and protective Cassie Warren, and no one messes with Cassie. But when Cassie develops an interest in and friendship with the cool newcomer, Lacy, Barrett suffers doubt, insecurity, and the fear of losing the one steadfast relationship in her life.
The author’s writing is engaging and immersive, as she perfectly depicts the teenagers, small-town life, and the intrigue stemming from decades-old secrets and local myths. The characters, their dialogue, and thoughts felt authentic, and their daily interactions and reactions were absolutely genuine. I felt like I personally knew these people, making the revelations all the more suspenseful and shocking. I read this book from cover to cover in one satisfying session; I was so absorbed and invested in their story.
I recommend WHAT HAPPENED IN BEULAH to readers of Southern and women’s fiction, especially those who enjoy coming-of-age stories and small towns with long hidden secrets.
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What a fabulous review! I bet I would love this book. It sounds just like the kind of story I would read.
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