The Backwater Audiobook By Vikki Wakefield cover art

The Backwater

A Novel

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The Backwater

By: Vikki Wakefield
Narrated by: Casey Withoos
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"An original thriller filled with empathy." —Sarah Bailey, author of The Housemate
The Kelly family has always been trouble
When a fire in a remote trailer park community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly’s mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody, flees her broken hometown, and disappears into the thick forest and winding backwaters of her childhood refuge, the river.
Recently let go from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weidermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river—and now, twelve years after the “Trailer Park Murders,” she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year, hoping the success would allow her to stitch back together the ragged edges of her life. But Rachel’s ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes.
As forceful and unrelenting as the river that drives its story, The Backwater is a stunning, suspenseful novel about class, corruption, truth, and justice by a powerful new voice in crime fiction.

Accolades & Awards

Edgar Award
2026
Crime Fiction Domestic Thrillers Edgar Award Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Crime Exciting Murder
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Just love stumbling on a great book by an author I don’t know. The story was excellent, characters well-drawn, and narrator was wonderful. And the cherry on top for me was a great dog too.

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