The Girl in Green

Los Angeles native Staci Layne Wilson authored the Rock & Roll Nightmares series, featuring 12 books of music-related horror short stories and non-fiction. She also produces films like Cabaret of the Dead (2017), The Ventures: Stars on Guitars (2020), and The Second Age of Aquarius (2021). Her newest novel, The Girl in Green, is out this month on Sinister Smile Press, an imprint of the award-winning publisher Crystal Lake. 

The book, set in 1980, features a unique look at motherhood and adolescence, a dark blend of cruel irresponsibility, morbid curiosity, and the pangs of guilt. Beth, the single mother, is striving to keep her 10-year old daughter Amy safe as the two drift across the U.S. seeking shelter, food, and companionship. This nowhere trip takes the two into menacing places like seedy towns, lowly dives, and dirty motels, yet seems counterfeit compared to Amy and Beth. This lethal duo is authentic death-dealers; Beth serving to protect Amy, the psycho serial-killer.

In the book's opening chapters, Amy is shown fatally stabbing a young bookstore clerk. Later, she kills a man at a roadside stop. It is immediately clear that Beth is aware of Amy's uncontrollable violence, but she seems to nurture these tendencies instead of preventing them. This is an interesting thread throughout Wilson's narrative, the idea that Beth is killing innocent people as much as Amy. “See something, say something” isn't in Beth's parental makeup. Instead, she coddles this bloodthirsty child and seemingly feeds into the butchery. But from her perspective, she is a good, supportive parent. 

The relationship teeters on a breaking point when Beth's boyfriend Cecil, appears. He isn't aware of Amy's murderous trek and journeys on with the duo from town to town. When Cecil's ex-wife begins to pal around with the trio, emotional conflict begins to tarnish these relationships. Beth begins to doubt Cecil's affection as Amy begins to distrust her mother. The book's first half closes with a harrowing scene that permanently changes the family dynamic. 

The novel's second half moves the narrative to Las Vegas as Amy is reunited with her biological grandfather. He's a morally corrupt alcoholic who works as a card dealer in a local casino. Amy is searching for a parental figure, but finds an alarming diary written by her mother during childhood. Amy's grandfather has some dark secrets of his own. His mysterious past, the relationship he had with Beth, and how it impacts Amy's murderous traits are all plot-propulsive devices that highlight the book's bloody finale. 

The Girl in Green is a disquieting descent into some really dark places. It is saturated in violence, bloodshed, and uncertainty, but all written with a purpose. It isn't graphic violence for the shock factor. These murders, as troubling as they are, define this mother-daughter relationship - as unsettling as that might be. The shifting environments from shabby, dilapidated places to the afterglow of Las Vegas was the best stage for this murky familial drama to unfold. Wilson's writing, while overly descriptive, tells the tale well. She's an experienced storyteller who brings these multi-faceted characters to life...and death.

You can purchase The Girl in Green HERE.