Winters, Cat. 
THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY
New York: Amulet Books, 2016. 
IL YA
ISBN 1419719157

In this modern retelling of Hamlet, Hanalee Denney, is the daughter of a white woman and an African American man, living in Elston, Oregon in 1923.  The small town is rife with racial prejudice and hatred, and the Ku Klux Klan is organized and active.  So how can a bi-racial poor girl uncover the nasty truths of her father’s murder?

But Hanalee is determined to do just that.  When the boy that was held responsible for her father’s death is released from prison, Hanalee seeks him out to mete out her own vengeance.  But she leaves that visit, not with satisfaction but with more questions.  Maybe her father’s death wasn’t the result of a horrible accident but murder.  

Help for Hanalee comes from the most unexpected and surreal place, her father’s ghost who wanders the street where he died and the truth leads her back to her home and the murderous step-father living under her own roof.  (Oklahoma High School Sequoyah Award, 2018)