Harry Cauley’s third novel, Millersburg (Bridie and Finn and The Botticelli Angel preceding), might well be described as “New Jersey Gothic.” It’s set in 1939 in a small town in Northern New Jersey, narrated by Ben, a 17-year-old boy. He’s part of a family ruled by Mamu, his tyrannical grandmother, and starts with a grisly double murder that eventually involves his family and changes the family dynamics forever as long-kept secrets begin to unravel.
Among the other beautifully rendered members of the family are Ben’s mother Eulalie, vague, distracted, and ineffective, his sister Estella, who pines for a local sheriff’s deputy she is allowed to see only in the presence of Mamu, and Uncle Josh, Mamu’s reclusive younger half-brother who lives alone in a shack on a creek and provides the only culture—and respite—that Ben and Estella know.
