Tethers: A novel

Abstract

Tasali Quinn is a seventeen-year-old Chickasaw girl, living in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Over a thousand miles away from her home in Oklahoma, Tasali feels like an outsider in what is deemed paradise on earth, missing her culture and people. Still grappling with grief, Tasali wants nothing more than to leave her father’s coastal hometown and return to Chickasaw Country in Oklahoma. When a crime happens to someone close to her, she realizes she might have deeper ties to this Outer Banks town than she’d imagined, more than just her best friend and an unsteady relationship with her ex-boyfriend. With the help of a summer tourist, Tasali starts to dig for answers, uncovering a connection between the present-day case and a cold case that has haunted the town for decades, one that is now burning hot. Investigating the cases begins as a way to build her journalism portfolio for college applications, but it spirals out of Tasali’s control, becoming all-consuming. Tasali keeps pushing, no matter the cost.