Not a Drop to Drink

Lynn is a teenager who lives beside a pond in a near-future world where clean water is worth more than gold. She has been raised to guard it against everything that threatens it: drought, a winter without snow, coyotes and, above all, people who come looking for a drink. Anyone who approaches the water leaves thirsty, or does not leave at all.

Sure of her own skills, Lynn has no interest in anything beyond the nearby fields and forest. That changes when strangers turn up. Strange footprints appear by the pond, threats come at night and gunshots ring out. Whoever is out there wants what Lynn has, and they will not stop until they get it.

This is a dystopian survival story with a frontier feel, set in a harsh world that is not far from our own. The language is spare and the tone is gritty. Danger and drama drive the plot, and a romance runs alongside them.

Lynn has been taught to trust no one, so the uneasy alliances that scarcity forces on her carry real weight, and her gun alone may not be enough to keep her safe.

It also reads as a coming-of-age story about a girl trained to kill who has to decide what is worth living for, and dying for. A companion novel, In a Handful of Dust, continues in the same world.